W5's 'The Trials of Conrad Black' will air this Saturday at 7 p.m. ET on CTV.
When Conrad Black walked into our makeshift studio -- a suite in The Mark, a 5 Star New York hotel where he was living while out on parole pending his re-sentencing -- I asked, ‘how should I address you, Lord Black or Mr. Black?'
Without skipping a beat he said: Call me Conrad.
In the years that I stood in front of the Chicago Courthouse waiting to get a quick quote from the former media baron as his trial progressed, I could never have envisioned a more congenial meeting.
We were initially given a one-hour window for the interview, a chance to talk about his new memoir, A Matter of Principle. What transpired was a 3-hour intimate discussion about his life, his love and his legal battles.
The conversation flowed so effortlessly that it wasn't until I heard banging from the adjoining room that my attention was averted. It seems the publicist, watching from an in-house monitor next door, was becoming increasingly agitated at the length of the interview.
Black was comfortable and perhaps, more revealing and forthright, than the publicist may have liked. Had it not been for my producer, holding him back from the door, we may have lost many of the personal revelations Black shared in those "stolen" hours.
Like any journalist, about to conduct a lengthy interview with a complex subject, I had done my homework. I knew Black's book well and was able to challenge him on comments that didn't line up with the book -- or the facts of the legal case.
Still, going in, I wasn't expecting to hear this man who had long proclaimed his innocence, expressing remorse over the way he had handled some of his business dealings and the way his imprisonment had impacted his wife, celebrated columnist Barbara Amiel -- I'll get to that shortly.
We discussed everything from his now infamous decision to trade in his Canadian citizenship for a seat in the British House of Lords, to his Honduran cell mate who taught him the "code" among prisoners at the Coleman Federal Prison in Florida.
What surprised me more than anything was how concerned he was, after the interview, that he had come across OK on camera. He was worried he would appear smug and people would dislike him even more than some already did. I didn't think this man would care how the public viewed him and yet he seemed very self-conscious. He came across as very human and admitted that from a very early age, had been raised not to show emotion. He worried that he had said too much.
In an interesting email exchange a few days later, he wanted to expand on a question I had asked him -- was he concerned his wife would ever leave him? He wanted me to know that he had discussed this with Barbara and she told him he should have been more open and quoted her when she told him leaving was never an option.
I hoped that I would be able to interview Barbara Amiel also, but she was too gun shy, she said, to put herself in the firing line before the media again. She said she didn't want to be a participant in her own hanging and had been misquoted too many times in the past.
She did allow us to come to their Toronto home and videotape her with her two beautiful dogs in the orchard she had cultivated for her husband's return. She apologized for discomfort in being interviewed and I understood. Although she found the energy to run around with the dogs, these last 10 years had clearly taken their toll and she appeared fragile.
Conrad Black also talked about his wife's health which became headline news during his re-sentencing, and like so much of our conversation he was surprisingly candid.
We ended our interview with a walk up the swankiest part of Madison Avenue and I couldn't help but think how surreal it was that a few short weeks later he would be back behind bars.
Black is in a Miami Federal prison now until May, 2012.