My heart skipped a beat at the part about her American visa!Mitch says he faked a heart attack to try and get his daugher off heroin
Gentle pleas and harsh words had failed to shock his daughter out of her heroin hell, so Amy Winehouse’s dad Mitch resorted to desperate measures – he faked a heart attack.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mirror, the former cabbie reveals how he collapsed on the floor, screaming, in front of Amy. It was a last-ditch attempt to get her to quit her drugs habit – before it killed her.
Mitch, 59, says: “I was at me wits end. I just didn’t know which way to turn. I’d tried everything.
“I pretended I was seriously ill and even got our doctor to tell Amy that I was dying.
“Once I even started screaming and said I was having a heart attack, but it didn’t work. Amy’s not stupid and she wanted to see my medical records proving I was actually ill.”
Mitch’s desperate actions happened last August when it looked as if his 25-year-old daughter was losing her battle with the Class A drug.
Since then he says Amy has changed her life around and, encouragingly, reveals she’s been clean of drugs since Christmas.
It’s a remarkable reversal of fortunes. Last summer, Amy was in a terrible state even, at times, incapable of leaving her bedroom.
Mitch says: “She was claustrophobic, agoraphobic. Phobic of everyone and everybody. People were even throwing drugs over the fence and up to her window for her.
“Until we brought in our own security, we were finding it a difficult situation to resolve.”
Mitch describes in detail how Amy has gradually pieced her life back together. But he admits it’s been a long, hard struggle, fraught with setbacks. And one that’s not over yet.
He says: “Amy started taking drug replacements last August, but it was on and off until November when she decided enough was enough. She went into a clinic and initially it was very successful.
“But in December, Blake broke out of rehab which was a condition of his early release. He went to Amy’s room and there was a setback.
“I was incandescent – someone who wanted to get clean reunited with her junkie husband.
“But since then she hasn’t looked back.”
It was Amy’s extended trip to St Lucia – away from all the bad influences and hangers-on – that helped her quit drugs.
But while she was there her boozing escalated. Mitch insists: “She doesn’t drink all the time, but when she does it’s sometimes to excess.
“I think potentially she could have a drink problem as addicts tend to replace one addiction with another.
“Her tipple of choice is Jack Daniel’s and Coke and when she and her friends get together she can drink too much.
“But she tells me it’s something which she will stop – and I believe her. She did it with drugs, so she can do it with alcohol.”
He reveals that Amy is now in the clutches of two new addictions – shopping and exercise.
Mitch says: “She exercises for three hours a day and she’s become addicted to shopping – in particular splashing out on jewellery. She spent a small fortune on one ring, only to lose it.
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“Any of these addictions could become a problem, but drinking is the one we’re keeping an eye out for.”
When the conversation moves to her now ex-husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, Mitch doesn’t mince his words. He blames Blake for introducing Amy to heroin and for sending her life into a downward spiral.
But he is adamant that Amy never wants to see Blake ever again. He says: “She’s told me that to my face and she understands that their relationship was just based on drugs and nothing else.
“He hasn’t asked us yet for money in the divorce. But when this does go to court, we’re not going to give him anything.
“They were together for four months and then he went to prison. He also admitted he got her on to drugs.
“How can he expect any money? He’s a convicted liar, a convicted violent criminal, but there he is trying to convince people that butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.
“I am not saying that he forced Class A drugs down Amy’s throat, but now he wants us to believe that he begged her to stop. It’s madness.”
Mitch also reveals that part of the reason Amy fled to St Lucia was to get away from Blake’s incessant phone calls.
He says: “I even had to take the batteries out of her mobile phone as he was just phoning and winding her up from prison. He would make her life hell.
“This went on for a considerable amount of time until she said she couldn’t speak to him any more.”
Mitch adds that he understands if some people don’t believe that Amy is now clean. But to the doubters, he says the proof is there in black and white.
“One of the conditions for her American visa is that she’s drug free,” he says. “The tests were taken by the doctor who reports to the US Embassy and they’ve come back negative. It’s not me being a deluded father – the truth is there for all to see.
“Nine months ago she wasn’t coherent. But now she doesn’t binge on chocolate like she used to. She’s no longer bulimic. She’s healthy.”
Mitch adds that there is also a tried-and-tested system in place to stop any hangers-on leading Amy astray.
He says: “Her security are very astute, they know who to look out for and the signs.
“They even remove her physically from dangerous situations. Saying that, they are not her jailers, and as much as I want to say to Amy: ‘Don’t drink!’, you can’t. But you only have to look at her to know that it’s working. I know when she’s high and when she’s not high – trust me, she hasn’t been since December.”
An being drug-free will help Amy to one day fulfil her longing to become a mum.
Mitch says: “She was desperate to have children with Blake and she told me they were trying to have a child but they couldn’t. Thank God!
“But now her body is in full working order again she’d love to be a mum.”
Mitch knows the future won’t all be plain sailing. He says: “I’m not saying that Amy is cured. She is a recovering addict.
“We are a million miles from being cured, but we are getting close to a resolution where she can live her life in a dignified and controlled manner.
“She has been a victim in all of this – if anyone needs to apologise, it’s Blake. But Amy doesn’t need his apologies.
“Yes, Amy has been sick for the past two years.
“But I just want all her fans to know that she’s back, drug free, and she will be making amazing music again, very soon.”
http://www.mirror.co...15875-21557173/
