New heartbreak for ‘closest friend’ of Amy Winehouse: Pair shared an  ‘undefined’ sexual relationship that left singer ‘confused’ – now Catriona Gourlay is embroiled in £730,000 legal battle with star’s father Mitch

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Fourteen years after Amy Winehouse’s passing, her longtime friend is dealing with new emotional distress due to a legal dispute concerning her estate and personal items.

Amy’s father, Mitch, is suing two of her close friends and housemates, Naomi Parry and Catriona Gourlay, for £730,000. He claims they made money by selling some of his daughter’s possessions at auction.

This situation arises only four years after Naomi and Catriona appeared in the 2021 BBC documentary Reclaiming Amy. In that film, they discussed their connection with the singer, along with her father, Mitch, and his former wife, Janis.

Catriona revealed she and Amy shared a relationship that wasn’t clearly defined, which caused Amy to feel unsure about her own sexual orientation.

She responded to claims that their relationship was just a brief encounter or an affair, clarifying that it was actually a deeply passionate and rapidly developing connection.

In a documentary interview ten years after the singer passed away, Naomi revealed that Catriona and Amy were intimate with each other, but at the time, it wasn’t considered unusual or noteworthy.

Catriona shared that she had already been in a serious relationship with a woman when she was nineteen or twenty, and felt confident in her identity.

Amy would often leave me little notes while I was asleep, telling me things like how beautiful I was, even while sleeping. She’d write things like, “You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen,” and “You look just as beautiful asleep as you do awake!”

Naomi explained it was a silly situation – Cat and Amy had a one-time thing, and everyone just joked about it and moved on.

Cat explained that their unusual and undefined relationship left Amy feeling lost and unsure of her own identity. She realized that Amy struggled with how the relationship shaped who she was.

It’s difficult to understand her and the issues she faced when so much about her life has remained unclear for so long. It’s a crucial part of truly knowing her story.

Catriona remembered Amy once making a playful comment during an interview: she said she wouldn’t consider herself a lesbian until after drinking four sambucas.

She suggested that people might not know her loved one had other meaningful relationships where she was genuinely loved, cherished, and supported, and where others would have gone to great lengths to see her happy.

Four years after the documentary came out, Catriona used Instagram to clarify that her relationship with Amy wasn’t just a brief romance or an affair.

She explained that six years is definitely not a casual relationship, and if people only focus on that aspect of their long, close friendship as shown in the documentary, they’ve misunderstood her message completely.

Honestly, when I look back at that relationship, the physical connection was really just a natural extension of a deep friendship. We were truly best friends first, with a real, passionate connection, and I always hated how people tried to overemphasize or even sensationalize it. It wasn’t anything scandalous, just two people who genuinely adored each other – as friends and more.

Amy was most famous for her relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil, whom she married in May 2007.

Their relationship quickly became chaotic, and in August, they were photographed in London with visible injuries, reportedly after a physical altercation.

Amy and Blake divorced in August 2009. Blake, who previously worked as a video production assistant, later admitted to being the one who first introduced Amy to heroin.

Amy passed away from alcohol poisoning in 2011 at the young age of 27. Her promising career was cut short by struggles with heroin, crack cocaine, and excessive alcohol use.

On Monday, it came to light that Mitch is suing Catriona and Naomi for £730,000. He claims they made this money by illegally selling items that belonged to him, items they didn’t have the right to sell.

In 2021, a major falling-out occurred between Mitch and the friends of his daughter, Amy, following an auction of her belongings in Los Angeles. The auction included approximately 700 items that Amy’s family had provided.

The auction and its proceeds are now the subject of the case in London’s High Court.

It wasn’t until after the auction had earned a significant amount of money – most of which was destined for the Amy Winehouse Foundation – that Mitch found out Naomi and Catriona had sold about 150 items, primarily clothing.

Two years after that, Catriona auctioned off another of Amy’s possessions: the blood-stained ballet slippers, which were famously connected to the case.

In 2007, photos surfaced of the singer wearing the slippers during a chaotic and destructive period involving her then-husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, which was linked to drug use.

Rumors circulated that the blood stains came from heroin injections between her toes. The ballet shoes unexpectedly earned Catriona a profit of £3,000.

Mitch voiced his frustration on Monday at the auctioning of his daughter’s belongings, which began as part of a legal case at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. He received a substantial inheritance after his daughter passed away without a will.

He doesn’t believe his daughter would have gotten rid of so much stuff, stating those items belonged to her and should have been part of what she left behind.

He asked her friends to return the money they earned, explaining he wanted to donate it to Amy’s charity, which is building a school in St. Lucia.

Henry Legge, the lawyer representing the claimant, told the court that Mitch only learned after the 2021 auction finished that the other parties were claiming ownership of over 150 items sold and planned to pocket the money from the sale.

They’ve consistently stated they were completely open and honest before the auction, but the available documents prove otherwise.

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2025-12-10 17:50