Not the best start to Boxing Day to be honest, or any day, calling the widow of Robert Winsor, Maria. Where do I start? Two decades ago I went down to their house in Bendinat to do a feature about the happy couple - Robert was already well known in the UK for a host of reasons, all good (those of the many who knew him will know that is not strictly true!!), but he was full of love and life. I won’t go into how he met Maria... . But he could have come to Majorca and put his feet up, next to Maria’s, and relaxed in the sunshine.
One thing I don’t think he fully realised was that Maria is from northern Spain, the engine of Spain, where they are not ones to lie around doing nothing. So, when Robert decided to hold a charity golf tournament with his best mates from the UK, all top celebrities, Maria was on it like a shot, and she’s a good golfer herself.
She was in touch with companies all round Spain; specialised wheel chairs, you name it. I think initially it was all a bit too much for Robert. I think he was looking forward to a round of golf with his celebrity mates and then a nice lunch and, having raised record amounts of money, donate it to charity. No!
No sooner had the final ball dropped in the hole, it was straight back to work on next year’s tournament, and so it went on. He raised millions for local charities and it was a great privilege to have been involved and known him. Penguin? Don’t ask!