Reply #5: It's not pleasant being an object of derision on three continents [View All]

Oh and this feels 'oh so good too'. I hate her even worse than her husband... who has Fitz on his pant cuffs and ain't going far...

It's not pleasant being an object of derision on three continents

Exclusive: Barbara Amiel, the high-spending wife of disgraced media baron Lord Black, speaks for the first time about her fall from grace

By Joan Crockatt and Arlene Bynon


Barbara Amiel sits alone at a table in the elegant Studio Cafe in Toronto's Four Seasons Hotel. Officially, the restaurant is closed. But Amiel, the wife of fallen Telegraph tycoon Conrad Black, still carries enough clout to have the fashionable restaurant opened solely for her – and to have a protective maitre d' hovering nearby. For ten months, Amiel has barely left her mansion in North Toronto's exclusive Bridle Path neighbourhood, where rock star Prince lives close by. Except for a fleeting appearance at the recent wedding of Donald Trump, she and her husband – who previously entertained Prince Charles, the Duchess of York and Henry Kissinger – have disappeared from the social scene.

In the past two years, Black has been stripped of his positions at Hollinger International, former owners of the Daily Telegraph, and publicly humiliated following allegations-that he misappropriated millions-His reign at the Telegraph ended with its sale to the Barclay brothers last July.

Given the extent of the couple's fall from grace, it's hardly surprising that Amiel's demeanour is one of bruised defiance. 'He'll be back,' she says of her husband. 'I'm not so sure about me. It's been an awful time.

SNIP.......

Lord Black's hero is Napoleon Bonaparte, and Amiel says his battle with shareholders and regulators has energised him. 'He's revelling in it. I don't know how he does it. If anything, our marriage is stronger as a result. It has never been stronger.

.........After her wedding, Amiel's columns started appearing in newspapers owned by Black – the Telegraph, Canada's National Post and the Chicago Sun-Times. She says she was torn between her roles as socialite wife and a writer. 'I've had to be schizophrenic with Conrad and that's been a tremendous strain.' Since her husband's downfall, her columns have been axed. The Telegraph delivered the news on May 12 last year, the other papers soon followed and then Canada's independently owned Macleans magazine – which had run her controversial Rightwing column for 27 years – delivered the final blow in late July.

She says this has left her devastated: 'All of the cutting things that were said – the lies, the fabrications – were mere water off a duck's back. But the cruellest thing that happened to me was the loss of my columns. It was like cutting off blood and oxygen.' After Amiel lost her columns, there were few in the Press prepared to support the Blacks. But a handful of writers have risen to their defence, including Telegraph writer Mark Steyn and David Frum, a former aide to George W. Bush who now writes for the National Post.

SNIP

There are flashes of the old defiance, but she cuts a despondent figure in the deserted hotel restaurant. As we prepare to leave, we ask her to reflect on her success, but she says: 'I don't see myself as a success.

At the moment, I am notorious.' With that she thanks the maitre d' and walks out of the door into the street, alone.

http://www.fmwf.com/C2B/PressOffice/display.asp?ID=656&Type=1