Amy Winehouse's ex-husband is speaking out about carrying the "burden" of the singer's death on his shoulders.
During an interview on "Good Morning Britain," held on what would have been the late singer's 40th birthday, Blake Fielder-Civil, 41, reflected on his past with Winehouse and addressed the lingering perception that he bears responsibility for her death.
"That's one of the reasons I wanted to speak today. Yeah, I do. I do," he admitted about shouldering responsibility for her death. "And that's OK. I can't change how other people feel about that."
He added: "But for me personally, I've needed to stop carrying that cross on my own. I've carried that burden myself for over 10 years. I feel, to be honest, that I'm the only person within that story that's ever held any accountability, that's ever tried to say, 'Yep, I made some huge mistakes.' "
Winehouse was pronounced dead at the scene of her home in London on July 21, 2011. A coroner's inquest reached a verdict of misadventure. Her blood-alcohol content level was 0.416%, considered potentially fatal. One small and two large bottles of vodka were found in her room. She was 27.
When prompted to elaborate on his "mistakes," Fielder-Civil said: "I was a 20-something-year-old drug addict. So I had absolutely no idea how to make myself clean, let alone somebody else who was a big cog in a machine for a record label, and there were vested interests in Amy carrying on performing."
Fielder-Civil and Winehouse's tumultuous marriage only lasted from 2007 until 2009 but over the years he has been held responsible for enabling her addiction and exposing her to dangerous substances, which ultimately contributed to her death.
During a 2018 interview with "Good Morning Britain," Fielder-Civil said he felt that the portrayal of their drug use was distorted.
"The drug thing is something that's been attributed to me for years. The fact is that me and Amy only used drugs together maybe six months of our marriage. That was it. And before that, Amy didn't use drugs. She smoked cannabis, [and] I did heroin maybe four or five times," he said at the time.
"People don't realize Amy didn't do anything Amy didn't want to do," he continued. "I'll always carry a burden of guilt because I should have acted."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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