ENNY YUEN | QMI AGENCY
TORONTO - Rob Ford's rehab "buddy" hopes the Toronto mayor is not mad at her.
LeeAnne McRobb -- who was charged with impaired driving May 20 while behind the wheel of Ford's SUV -- said she is worried her published account of her friendship with the mayor, in an exclusive QMI Agency interview, will trigger some backlash.
"I worry about Rob. Obviously, he is a friend and I care about it. Mainly, I hope he's not upset with me," McRobb said Thursday in a phone interview from her home in Bala, Ont. -- about 200 km north of Toronto, in Muskoka, where the GreeneStone rehab facility is also located.
"He told me always to keep quiet always and behave...and that would be the best way in to finally just say what I have to say." [Anyone who can explain to me what the second half of that sentence is supposed to mean, please call.]
The 36-year-old petite blonde said she has not spoken with the mayor since the story was published Thursday.
She spent nine days at GreeneStone rehab facility in May for her alcoholism and sparked a friendship with Ford, who voluntarily checked himself into the centre for alcohol and substance abuse issues.
Their friendship was strictly platonic, she said.
McRobb also said she did not smuggle booze or drugs inside the facility.
After her Dodge Ram 1500 was smashed up because she loaned it to another GreeneStone patient whom she did not know well, Ford recommended she bring the truck down to an east-end body shop [When did 3379 Dundas St W get moved to east of Yonge St?] he uses, McRobb explained.
He gave her his keys and told her she could borrow his Cadillac Escalade from his house while her truck was in the shop on May 15 -- five days prior to her arrest for impaired driving.
McRobb said she met Alexander "Sandro" Lisi -- who was once known as Ford's occasional driver and who is facing an extortion charge in connection with the mayor's crack video -- at Martino Brothers Collision but shied away from elaborating further.
"I don't remember if (Ford) called or gave me the number," she said. "I know I was emailing back and forth with the owner of the body shop and we were making the arrangements. I guess (Rob) had called the body shop, told them about me and whatnot and that I was coming down, but I made those arrangements myself."
The signage outside of Martino Brothers Collision says the business is "Looking after your car since 1955" and is "the collision experts."
A man who answered the phone at the garage refused to give his name and said he didn't know if McRobb had been there.
By breaking her silence, McRobb said she feels a weight off her shoulders.
"(Wednesday) I went to bed with a clear head and clear conscience. I slept like a baby last night" without the use of alcohol, she said.
"I feel a lot better and I hope it keeps going, because I need that. Whether I'm Rob Ford's friend or not, I have to get through this. He needs to do the exact same thing. He's going to struggle -- we all are."
