NELSON Mandela had a soft spot for British singer Amy Winehouse after a quip she made about his time in prison - former prime minister Gordon Brown has revealed.
The ex-Labour leader said the pair met at former South African president Mandela's 90th birthday party, where Rehab singer Winehouse made a joke comparing the anti-apartheid campaigner to her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil.
Mr Brown said: "The person (Mandela) most liked was Amy Winehouse. "She said to him: 'You and my husband have a lot in common'. He said, 'Oh, what is that?' She said, 'You've both spent a long time in prison'."
Mandela was held in the high esteem around the world for leading South Africa's transition from white-minority rule in the 1990s. After languishing in prison for 27 years, he became the country's first black president and died last year at 95.
Fielder-Civil, then 26, was sentenced to 27 months in jail back in 2008 after admitting grievous bodily harm and perverting the course of justice. He and Winehouse were married in 2007 but divorced two years later. Two years after that on July 23 2011, the singer was found dead in her flat in north London from alcohol poisoning.
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