Majorie: ‘UK press twisted my words!’

When I arrived at her beach restaurant in Cas En Bas last week Majorie Lambert had the UK Sunday Mirror already laid out. Someone had brought her the newspaper which featured a spread that quoted Lambert heavily.
“Can you believe what the people wrote?” Lambert told me as I tried to skim through the article to find out what all the huffing and puffing was about.
Lambert, the owner of a beach restaurant that singer Amy Winehouse frequented during her visit to St Lucia, had become quite famous herself after the Grammy winning singer was found dead in her London home just about a month ago.
Since Winehouse’s death tabloids have been contacting Lambert frequently to get her comments on the singer’s time spent here. For her part Lambert had done a previous interview with the STAR where she boldly declared that if Winehouse—who battled with alcohol and drug problems—had stayed in St Lucia she would still be alive today. But it was not that comment that had gotten Lambert international attention, it was statements she made to reporters from the UK Mirror who flew to St Lucia to get the Winehouse scoop.

The story in the Mirror stated that Amy Winehouse had planned to adopt a St Lucian child before her death. Pictures of the ten-year-old little girl frolicking on the beach with Winehouse in this internet age had quickly made the rounds. The child was Majorie Lambert’s granddaughter.
“What I don’t like in the UK Mirror is that they are saying that Amy would be given my granddaughter because my granddaughter is so poor and her mother is out of a job. They even said my son in Germany and that he does not take care of his daughter because he does not have a job. This is a lie. All of these are lies,” says Lambert. “My son has a job, he is married, and he takes care of his daughter. I am her grandmother and I help take care of her too. Her mother also takes care of her.”
Lambert explained that the Sunday Mirror reporters had come to her restaurant and started asking her questions because they said they had heard she was close to Amy. She said her granddaughter was with her at the time.
“I told them Amy and my granddaughter were very close. That they used to spend a lot of time together. I told them there was a time Amy even said she wanted to adopt my granddaughter. But this wasn’t something that was serious. I am not her mother, I cannot give the child away without her mother or father’s consent. There were no papers or legal documents. Nothing! Amy’s lawyer was right to say there was no truth to this.”
Lambert believes that the international press simply used her.
“They just wanted to sell papers. If they put a good story their papers will not sell so they made this up. I regret I ever said anything to them because they have hurt my relationship with Amy’s friends and family. I just want to correct it before this story causes more harm. My granddaughter’s mother is also upset about it and I don’t blame her. This newspaper did not care whose feelings they hurt in the process.”
The restaurateur said that there was no belief in her family that the ten-year-old girl would have been better off with Amy.
“My granddaughter’s family loves her,” said Lambert. “We are not poor. We all make a living. I want the UK Mirror to correct these things. There are a lot of people looking for bad news about Amy even after her death. They don’t care that she paid for someone’s operation when she was here and saved his life. They don’t care that she tried to help people. They are exploiting my granddaughter by doing this. I want it to stop.”
Lambert says she has decided to be very careful now about the press she speaks to.
She said: “They need to let Amy rest in peace.”