Amy Winehouse_ The Biography - Chas Newkey-Burden [46]
Amy admits that she is a high-maintenance girlfriend to have, ‘in that I expect my boyfriend to come to my house and sleep with me every night. I’m an all-or-nothing person, but I also like to look after my man and make him feel like a king.’ Prior to meeting Blake, she had spoken of the difficulty of balancing her career and a boyfriend. ‘At the moment I don’t have the time to be able to respect a boyfriend properly, and I can’t expect a boyfriend to respect and honour what I do right now, so I am not looking for anything on a surface level.’
Amy and Blake went out for one of their typical nights on the tiles in April 2007. Drinks were enjoyed; laughter, chat and much more besides were shared. Then, when they got home, Blake turned to Amy and asked her to marry him. He didn’t get an instant answer, as Amy revealed: ‘I took a day to finally agree.’ Not that she was in two minds. ‘I am so pleased Blake proposed. It’s fucking amazing, fantastic,’ she beamed, flashing her £3,000 Tiffany engagement ring to her friends. Speaking to reporters on the steps outside a Camden pub, Amy said, ‘I’m a very lucky girl to have found someone I love so much. I hope to be with him for the rest of my life. We haven’t set a date yet or anything like that. Obviously, we’re both young and it’s frightening. But it’s the right thing to do. That’s why I agreed.’
Soon the plans for the wedding were under way – as was the inevitable press speculation. One report claimed that Amy was demanding that her fiancé convert to Judaism in order to marry her. ‘He isn’t religious so it’s no skin off his nose,’ said a source. ‘He will do anything she wants and has spoken to her dad about it.’ However, one eyewitness on the day of their wedding on 18 May suggests he wouldn’t do anything Amy wants, at all. As he strutted down the hotel corridor, he was said to be singing to himself, ‘They tried to make me sign a prenup but I said no, no, no.’
The hotel in question was the Shore Club Hotel in Miami, where Amy and Blake booked a £2,500-a-night room for their wedding trip. While there, they certainly celebrated in style. It is estimated that they spent £1,000 on room service, including countless bottles of Veuve Clicquot champagne at £90 a time. They even had the in-house masseur visit them.
‘Amy told Blake that she’d spare no expense – she’s working so hard now that they tried to cram two weeks’ worth of fun into two days,’ said a friend. ‘They locked themselves in and wouldn’t even leave to let the chambermaids change the linen! Every few hours, they’d call and ask for bubbly and occasionally French fries. They seemed far more interested in booze than food!’ It is estimated that the bill for their stay eventually came to £9,000 all in.
The events of the day of the wedding are still somewhat mysterious. It is known, though, that Amy wore a short floral-patterned sundress and Blake wore a retro grey suit for the brief ceremony at the Miami-Dade County Marriage License Bureau in Florida. Marriage clerk Sammy Calixte, who conducted the ceremony, said, ‘They came in to get married and they were alone. I read the vows and each one said “I do.” When I pronounced them man and wife, they hugged and kissed.’
Amy then changed into a white vest top and denim shorts and, with her new husband in tow, went to the Big Pink Diner restaurant for a celebration meal. The Big Pink Diner had recently been patronised by Tony Blair while he stayed at Bee Gee Robin Gibb’s beach mansion. The married couple arrived back at the hotel separately. Confronted by reporters, Blake said, with a wink, ‘We had a good day but I can’t really talk about it.’ Back together, they repaired to the pool bar and carried on the celebrations. When they tried to head out for another walk, they were caught in a