Kate Winslet was hailed as the hero who rescued Richard Branson’s mother Eve when a fire broke out at the tycoon’s Caribbean retreat three years ago.
But now, Mrs Branson has claimed it was her grandsons who got everyone out alive — with the actress merely helping her down the last few steps of a staircase.
Asked to recount the story of her brush with death, the 89-year-old said: “Oh no, I’m sick of this story.” She continued: “It was the hurricane of hurricanes and we were on fire and would have all been burnt alive if it wasn’t for my grandsons. It was four or five in the morning and they went around getting everyone out of bed.
“Anyway, I’d just about got outside and the rain was pouring down and I didn’t have my contact lenses in, but I was making my way out and Kate and her two children were behind me. Then she just sort of picked me up and took me down four steps and that was it. I’m sorry, I can’t make a story out of it.”
She told the Observer: “I suppose I might have been a bit slow for her.”
Off to space
Even though she is in her 90th year, Mrs Branson is preparing to take part in her son’s space tourism project. She plans to be on board when the first Virgin Galactic flight is launched. And it will be she who releases the spacecraft from the mothership — named Eve, in her honour.
Mrs Branson said: “I will press the knob, I hope in the right way.”
Founder of the Virgin Group, Richard Branson, 64, is believed to be worth £3 billion (Dh18.8 billion).
Asked if she is proud of the business tycoon, Mrs Branson said: “No. I don’t think proud’s the word. I think I’ve expected it of him always. But I never hear a bad word about him, which is pretty amazing. He’s really nice to everybody.”
