Saving Amy (19 page)

Mitch had told me earlier that Amy has, on occasion, treated Jane badly in the past. He recounts one incident when Amy went to his home and stole Jane’s perfume. I comment that everyone knows that stealing or lying is common among addicts.

However, Mitch carries on, saying that when he confronted Amy about the incident, she didn’t really understand what the issue was and her response was to send Jane an expensive gift instead.

He explains, ‘It is not about that. It is about the fact that Jane didn’t want an expensive gift. She wanted her
own
perfume.’

That is probably true, but given the context – that one person is a mature woman, who knows she is dealing with someone with problems, and the other is an addict, who lies and steals, and doesn’t necessarily think rationally – it seems a bit ridiculous for Mitch to torment himself over whose side he should take. It is so much wasted energy for
him. But perhaps he, albeit unknowingly, enjoys being in the midst of the three demanding women in his life.

I understand it is difficult for Jane. She rarely speaks in Mitch’s presence. Maybe she used to want to say more but now, perhaps, I think she chooses not to. The only time I really hear her express what she wants is when she and Mitch visit my vacation home, which I’ve already spoken about (
see
page 101
).

While there, it is obvious that Mitch needs to unload, which I understand, but it goes on for hours and hours, with poor Jane just listening. Mitch means so well, but when Jane breaks in and says she wants to be part of it all, that she wants to help, his response is to try to cuddle her and say,
‘Well, yes of course’.
But Jane just repeats,
‘I want to be involved’.

It is a very tense moment and shows that while Mitch has huge problems with Amy, he also has them with Jane, who needs more attention from him and wants to be more involved in decision-making.

Mitch, however, is a control freak and needs to at least think he is calling all the shots. Even though I am very sympathetic about what he is going through with Amy, in a way, it is transparent that he uses Amy as an excuse. It is very convenient for him to say to Jane, ‘You have listened to me for years and you are so patient, but I can give you
this
amount of attention as I have such a sick daughter to deal with.’

And that is why their marriage has problems – not because of Amy but because of Mitch’s excuses and his battle to please, as he sees it, Amy, Jane and, even to a certain extent, Janis, as well.

So …
Amy is sent to St Lucia because Mitch thinks Jane will divorce him if he postpones their holiday plans, although Mitch tries to convince me that it’s his daughter’s decision.

‘Amy wants to go to St Lucia,’ Mitch says to me as we are having dinner the night before she is due to fly out to the Caribbean island. But Mitch is tense: his face is so red that it makes me concerned about his health. He is scared that his daughter won’t make the flight and that the family’s vacation plans will be affected.

The following day, he calls me, just to assure me that everything is OK.

‘She made the flight,’ he says.

Amy’s friends slept over to make sure that she got on the plane. Mitch is obviously relieved. But, all I can think is, you have to question how on earth an addict dealing with alcohol problems ends up vacationing in a resort with free booze.

In late December, photographs of Amy, without her trademark beehive and sporting short curly hair instead, frolicking topless in the waves in St Lucia or relaxing with friends, are published in the media. Reports also emerge that while Amy looks healthier and more curvaceous than she has done in recent months, she is out drinking heavily in bars on the island.

Then in January, while I am hosting a surprise birthday party for my producer at a London restaurant at which Mitch is present, we receive a call telling us that Amy has
been spilling her guts to no less than a reporter from the British Sunday paper
News of the World.

She has reportedly been talking about sex, drugs, and more sex … Blake is going mad, having heard about Amy’s alleged affair with a younger man while she’s been away and is reportedly seeking a divorce and half of Amy’s fortune. Mitch looks like someone has shot him. He leaves the birthday party shortly after the call. I am surprised as Mitch should be happy with the news of the divorce: after all this is what he and Janis have wanted for such a long time.

There is one problem, however – Amy.

Mitch shows up at my hotel two days after the party and confirms that the divorce proceedings are, indeed, official: ‘My solicitors were served the papers by Blake’s solicitors. However … I don’t know what to do. … Amy doesn’t understand why he wants to divorce her? I had to call her before she heard about it from someone else. … She asked me “Daddy, why does he want to divorce me?” I had to say: “Listen, you know I don’t like him.
I hate him.
But I have to admit that your behaviour with another man is not really what marriage is all about.”’

Mitch flies out to St Lucia to be with his daughter. He asks me to join them but the flights and the emotions are too complicated – so I bail out. While he is on the plane Amy is photographed on all fours, prowling for alcohol, after bar staff refused to serve her. She has also allegedly been begging holidaymakers to get alcohol forher.

The papers openly question why Amy, who is fighting addictions to both drink and drugs, has been sent to the Le Sport Spa for a ‘health kick’.

When I call Mitch to warn him about these horrible photos, he starts screaming about the media, screaming about the hotel manager, screaming about the world …. He has just landed in St Lucia, so he is tired, and these photographs are challenging all his denials about Amy and also, seemingly, his own self-defence mechanisms.

I am trying to rearrange my schedule to visit Amy in St Lucia. In the meantime, Janis manages to visit her daughter. Mitch has already visited Amy twice by this stage, but it is much more difficult for Janis to travel, given her medical condition.

Janis and another female relative visit Amy for some quiet time. It is meant to be a surprise, Janis tells me. And at that time, most people are speculating about when Amy will return to England to talk to Blake about the proposed divorce.

Janis tells me that when Amy is informed that she has arrived in St Lucia and is staying next door, she screams,
‘Mummy, Mummy, Mummy
.’

Amy is delighted to see them. It brings back happy childhood memories, apparently, but after a brief reunion she leaves the two women and heads to the gym.

Her mother tells me: ‘She has changed so much since I saw her last in London. She looks wonderful. She is different … Like someone who has got a new life –
different
.’

Janis enjoyed her vacation in St Lucia. She recalls, ‘We had this apartment on the beach. It was next door to
Amy so we could have … easy access without the media following up.’

However, the mother and daughter bonding time ends up being very brief. Janis tells me that from the first day of their visit, Amy’s tied up trying to get an early flight back to London, but with little success.

She describes one of her memorable encounters with her daughter, one that took place in late February 2009. The two women are sitting having lunch on the beach. They are being treated like VIPs and that is obviously because of Amy.

‘We were relaxed,’ she says. ‘Besides catching up with Amy, we needed to catch up with each other.’

‘We didn’t mind [that] we hardly saw Amy because I am her mother! I know how much she loves me. I never demand. And then, Amy showed up with her friend, Violet. She came and kissed me goodbye. She was leaving to … go back to London. She [had] found a flight via Barbados. Then she continued to say goodbye to other people. She disappeared from my sight. Then … reappeared …’

Janis recalls that it was like a scene from a movie.

‘… My Amy was riding on a black horse! She was bowing towards me. … This horse’s name was “Black Beauty”!

‘I learnt that Amy coordinated it with a person who is in charge of the horses there. But it was such a magical moment.

‘[We] were just looking [on] in disbelief. Then she jumped off the horse, came and kissed us and faded away. … Can you imagine what a life I have?!’

Amy flew back into Gatwick Airport near London on 1 March 2009. On the 2nd,
People
magazine reported that Amy was sporting her old beehive hairstyle and hanging out with Mitch in her new North London home. Blake had been released from prison again and sources revealed that Amy was determined to persuade her husband not to divorce her; while other sources close to Blake revealed that he was determined to make the break.

Just days later, Amy was back in the press again, this time charged with assault over allegedly hitting a fan in September of the previous year. She was due to appear in court to face charges on 17 March, which she did, appearing late, to plead not guilty. The case was then adjourned until July 2009.

Later in March, Amy confirmed that she would be performing in the Island Records 50th anniversary celebrations to be held in May, along with such artists as Paul Weller, Sly & Robbie and Keane. But by April, Amy was back in St Lucia again, this time to record her third album, again with Salaam Remi, who had worked with her on both of her earlier albums. It was announced that Amy would also perform at the St Lucia Jazz Festival in May and then fly back to England to perform in the Island Record celebrations.

I was with Mitch in a Moroccan restaurant on 3 April 2009 when he told me that Amy was leaving for St Lucia to work
on her album and that he would also be joining her on the 23rd. Mitch needed to see me. He felt that I was neglecting him because of my other commitments.

‘This time you are coming, right Daphne?’

I have already had to cancel visiting Amy in St Lucia, due to other commitments and the 23rd in terms of my work schedule seems a long way off, but I tell Mitch that I will try, even though it is also my birthday about that time.

He says, ‘This time I am flying First Class. … I don’t care because Universal is paying for my ticket. The record company is paying for … my ticket, for her ticket and the villa accommodation because she is going to … work on a record ….’