Amy Winehouse's father just lost a courtroom fight over the fate of some of the late singer's clothes and personal items. A UK High Court judge on Friday dismissed Mitch Winehouse's claim that two of his daughter's confidantes—her stylist Naomi Parry and friend Catriona Gourlay—had secretly cashed in by auctioning off items that should have gone to her estate. The judge found there was no deliberate concealment and said the elder Winehouse could have discovered what they held "with reasonable diligence," reports the Guardian. Parry said Mitch Winehouse offered her $250,000 for the proceeds of her sale and for him to drop the legal claim, but said she'd "rather set the money on fire than give him a penny," per Sky News.
Parry and Gourlay maintained the items were either gifts from Amy Winehouse or already theirs. The disputed auctions in the US in 2021 and 2023 followed a larger 2021 sale of 834 items that brought in $1.4 million for the estate, with 30% going to the Amy Winehouse Foundation. Among Parry's pieces: a silk mini dress Amy Winehouse wore at her final performance, which fetched $243,200. In a sharply worded ruling, the judge called Mitch Winehouse an "unreliable witness" who launched the case without properly checking his claim and noted he is both protective of his daughter's legacy and the family's financial interests. Parry said the decision "unequivocally" cleared her name and that the lawsuit "should never have been brought."
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