Nearly 15 years on from Amy Winehouse’s death, her former husband Blake Fielder-Civil has spoken again about the circumstances surrounding her struggles and the public reaction that followed.
Fielder-Civil and Winehouse were married from 2007 to 2009, and remained in contact after their divorce.
In the years since her death, he has frequently been held responsible in the public eye for Winehouse’s battle with addiction. In a recent interview, the 43-year-old said that while he accepts he played a role, he does not believe he was to blame for her death.
Appearing on Paul C. Brunson’s We Need to Talk podcast, Fielder-Civil said he and Winehouse “became addicts together”.
“It was known that Amy had experimented with drugs and it was nothing to do with me. The heroin was something as I said that I tried, let’s say ten times, smoked it over a period of six months with some friends.
“That’s where I was at with that. But yeah, the first time she did it was with me and it was probably my sixth time.”
Winehouse died in 2011 and the cause of death was recorded as alcohol poisoning. She was found at her home in Camden, north London, with 416mg of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood in her system.
Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said that Winehouse had “a level of alcohol commonly associated with fatality”.
Discussing accusations that he contributed to Winehouse’s addiction, Fielder-Civil told Brunson:
“My stance now is that I know a lot of people, especially people reading media 20 years ago, would have an idea that Amy’s passing is my responsibility.
“As I’ve always said – I never shirk from any responsibility. If I’ve done something, I’ll put my hand up to it, but I’m okay. I’m not okay, but I’ve made my peace I had a part to play. But there’s one thing aside from everyone else that also had a role to play.
“Amy herself had agency, and that is in no way at all disrespecting her by saying that, but Amy did what she wanted to do and even knowing the drinking had started to hurt her, she carried on.”
Fielder-Civil was in prison at the time of Winehouse’s death. He also described learning of the news after a prison officer showed him a report.
“My first thought was that it would be a hoax,’ he said.
“I burst into tears. It was the only comfort I had at that moment for losing this massive, huge part of my life.
“My cellmate at the time was a really solid guy. He’d seen it on the news and gave me a hug straight away. I burst into tears. He started crying too. So it’s strange I got held up by, you know, as being supported and held up by somebody I’d known from a matter of weeks.
“That was the only comfort I had at that moment for losing this massive, huge part of my life, a big part of my heart. Somebody I was not going to see again or hear again or anything again. It was too much.”