Amy Winehouse’s ex Blake Fielder-Civil has said he feels a sense of “accountability” for the singer’s death, on what would have been her 40th birthday.
The Grammy-winning star died in July 2011 at the age of 27, and an inquest listed the cause of death as alcohol poisoning.
In the months before her death, Amy had stopped using drugs in the months before her passing, but in the years prior, she had a well-documented struggle with substance abuse issues, and admitted to using heroin and crack cocaine, which Blake introduced her to.
Appearing on Thursday’s Good Morning Britain, Blake said he remains “devastated” by Amy’s passing, and addressed the fact many people hold him responsible for the decisions the singer made.
“That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to speak today – I do [know people feel that way] and that’s okay,” he told Susanna Reid. “I can’t change how other people think about that.
“But for me personally, I needed to stop carrying that cross on my own. I’ve carried that burden myself for over ten years.
“I feel, to be honest, that I’m the only person within that story that’s ever kind of held any accountability, that’s ever tried to say, ‘Yeah, I made some huge mistakes’.”
When asked if there was anything he’d do differently, Blake replied: “Almost everything.”
He also said he takes “full accountability” for introducing Amy to heroin.
“I’d tried that particular drug a handful of times, but I hadn’t gone down any bad roads with it,” Blake continued. “I know that sounds bizarre to say but it hadn’t taken us down the depths it did, it was still just a drug.”
Candidly addressing the mistakes he made, Blake added: “I was a twenty-something-year-old drug addict, so I had absolutely no idea how to make myself clean, let alone somebody else.
“I wasn’t an addict before Amy was. I’d done drugs but there’s a difference between people who take drugs socially [and addicts].
“Again, this isn’t me trying to demean my role, I did become a drug addict.”
Amy and Blake first met in a London pub in 2005 and their tumultuous on-off relationship was largely the inspiration for her critically-acclaimed 2006 album, Back To Black.
The pair reunited and married in 2007, but spent months apart when Blake was jailed for assault in 2008. Shortly after being released from prison in 2009, he filed for divorce.
Meanwhile, Amy spent eight months in St Lucia in a bid to curb her addictions.
While she succeeded in staying away from Class A drugs, her alcohol consumption increased.
When the Tears Dry On Their Own singer returned to the UK, she fell into a cycle of abstaining from alcohol and relapsing, according to her GP (via the Guardian).
Amy’s 2011 death sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry and hundreds of floral tributes were placed outside her Camden flat.
Earlier this year, production wrapped on a biopic, named after Amy’s sophomore album Back To Black.
The film sees Marisa Abela as the iconic star while Jack O’Connell plays Blake. It is due for release in 2024.