Winehouse "Was Close To Death Twice"

01/20/09 1:58pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

An upcoming television documentary about Amy Winehouse reveals that the singer's drug-fueled, self-destructive behaviour has nearly killed her at least twice.

The singer's parents, Mitch and Janis Winehouse, were interviewed for Saving Amy, a documentary that Israeli-American TV reporter Daphne Barak is making about their daughter. It's scheduled to air later this year.

"Stories about my troubled daughter are selling newspapers and magazines," Mitch Winehouse says in the documentary, according to the U.K.'s Hello! magazine. "They don't want her to get better. But she is better.

"They didn't see her lying in bed for days in a dark room. She was close to death twice. We have been working a lot to get her where she is right now."

Winehouse is on vacation in St. Lucia and claims she's off drugs. Nonetheless, her alleged drunken behaviour has reportedly upset many other guests at the exclusive resort where she's staying, and the hotel's staff have been instructed not to give her any alcohol.

This prompted Winehouse to approach guests at the resort's restaurant and beg them for alcohol on her knees, according to Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper. Photos of the event were taken and hit the internet, but Mitch Winehouse says they've been misinterpreted.

"They were taken before I arrived [in St. Lucia], but she says she was just having fun, pretending to be a horse," the older Winehouse said.

Mitch Winehouse also spoke about his daughter's troubled and turbulent relationship with her husband, the jailed Blake Fielder-Civil. Neither parent like Fielder-Civil, and blame him for introducing her to drugs. (Interestingly enough, Fielder-Civil doesn't disagree.)

Janis Winehouse reveals in Saving Amy that her "worst moment" occurred when she found out her daughter and Fielder-Civil had eloped.

"Amy called and put Blake on the phone," she said, according to the Daily Telegraph. "He said, 'Hi mum...' and I felt as if I had a knife in my stomach. Who is this nothing, calling me 'mum'?"

Despite despising Fielder-Civil, Mitch Winehouse said he told his daughter that her fling with Josh Bowman — which has prompted Fielder-Civil to begin divorce proceedings against her — wasn't appropriate.

"I had to call Amy before she heard about it from someone else," he said. "She asked me, 'Daddy, why does he want to divorce me?'

"I said, 'You know I don't like him, but I have to admit that your behaviour with another man is not what marriage is all about."