Amy Winehouse’s former husband is disputing assumptions among the general public that he’s solely to blame for the six-time Grammy winner’s death in 2011 at the age of 27.
In a new interview with Paul C. Brunson for We Need to Talk, Blake Fielder-Civil, billed simply as Blake Fielder by the podcast, spoke for more than two hours about not only his and Amy’s shared addiction struggles, but also his assessment of what he views as the unfair and inaccurate portrayal he’s continued to receive in the press.
“My stance now is 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,” Fielder said, as seen below. “As I've always said, I never shirk from any responsibility. If I've done something, I'll put my hand up to it. .. . I’ve made my peace with, yeah, 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. Amy did what she wanted to do.”
Winehouse’s 2011 death was due to alcohol poisoning, not drugs. As Fielder argued, the singer, whose critically acclaimed 2006 album Back to Black was heavily inspired by their relationship, “carried on” with drinking despite the fact that it was starting to do damage to her physical wellbeing.
“I just feel that sometimes that can get lost on that album,” he said. “There’s that element, like I just said to you, of her being helplessly in love. But she was actually a very strong woman.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Fielder, who was divorced from Winehouse in 2009, expressed optimism that his former partner would have eventually been able to become “comfortable with herself” without substances. He also expressed his hopes for her publicly outspoken father, Mitch, to one day have a revelation about both his and Amy’s relationship, and the nuanced nature of her addiction struggles.
“I would like it if he would acknowledge that I loved Amy, that she loved me,” he said. “I know he knows it, but I think it's painful still for him to say it. … It opens up a possibility of, if you can't blame that person for your daughter not being there, what does that leave you with? I would say it's maybe akin to you've got to forgive somebody, haven't you? I'm asking him to forgive me in a sense of: I wasn't responsible and had foresight as a young addict into thinking what the future may hold with that.”
Fielder continued: “Amy died of drink, nothing to do with drugs. … I never blamed a person that gave me drugs for the first time. I've never tried to put that on anyone. Why would I, you know? That was me. I never understood. Did these people think that I forced Amy to do drugs? That’s just not what happened.”
Winehouse’s story inspired the 2024 biopic Back to Black, starring Industry’s Marisa Abela, and Asif Kapadia’s 2015 documentary Amy. While the former largely failed to meet critical and commercial expectations, the latter was a success on both fronts.
Over the years, Winehouse, undoubtedly a singular presence during her tragically brief career spanning just two studio albums, has received numerous tributes from fellow artists. In 2012, one year removed from the singer’s death, Green Day closed out their ¡Dos! album with the ballad “Amy,” intended as a reflection on Winehouse’s life and impact, complete with a nod to her 2006 hit “Rehab.”
