Amy Winehouse

by Chas Newkey-Burden

  The first thing that Blake had to adapt to once he started dating Amy was the glare of publicity. Amy admits that he found it a challenge. ‘There’s no point in being pissed off about things you can’t control. It’s cool. It causes problems with my husband, though. He doesn’t like it,’ she has said since her marriage to Blake in May 2007. The most visible and brutal expression of this came in the shape of the paparazzi, who would follow the couple around. ‘I’m protective of Amy as any man would be of his wife,’ he has said. ‘It’s natural. To have a scrum of photographers shouting, thrusting cameras and flashing them in your face can be quite intimidating but Amy seems to have accepted this is the way her life is going to be from now on.’

  Amy agrees: ‘Yes, you’re right, it can be intimidating. And it can be scary sometimes when people I don’t know seem to know me, but that’s about it really.’

  Many celebrities have found that they have lost otherwise promising relationships because their non-famous partners have found living in the public eye was too much to take. It is to Blake’s enormous credit and a hugely positive sign of the couple’s prospects of future happiness that he has striven hard to come to terms with the pressures of Amy’s fame.

  Amy admits that she is a high-maintenance girlfriend to have, ‘in that I expect my boyfriend to come to my house and sleep with me every night. I’m an all-or-nothing person, but I also like to look after my man and make him feel like a king.’ Prior to meeting Blake, she had spoken of the difficulty of balancing her career and a boyfriend. ‘At the moment I don’t have the time to be able to respect a boyfriend properly, and I can’t expect a boyfriend to respect and honour what I do right now, so I am not looking for anything on a surface level.’

  Amy and Blake went out for one of their typical nights on the tiles in April 2007. Drinks were enjoyed; laughter, chat and much more besides were shared. Then, when they got home, Blake turned to Amy and asked her to marry him. He didn’t get an instant answer, as Amy revealed: ‘I took a day to finally agree.’ Not that she was in two minds. ‘I am so pleased Blake proposed. It’s fucking amazing, fantastic,’ she beamed, flashing her £3,000 Tiffany engagement ring to her friends. Speaking to reporters on the steps outside a Camden pub, Amy said, ‘I’m a very lucky girl to have found someone I love so much. I hope to be with him for the rest of my life. We haven’t set a date yet or anything like that. Obviously, we’re both young and it’s frightening. But it’s the right thing to do. That’s why I agreed.’

  Soon the plans for the wedding were under way – as was the inevitable press speculation. One report claimed that Amy was demanding that her fiancé convert to Judaism in order to marry her. ‘He isn’t religious so it’s no skin off his nose,’ said a source. ‘He will do anything she wants and has spoken to her dad about it.’ However, one eyewitness on the day of their wedding on 18 May suggests he wouldn’t do anything Amy wants, at all. As he strutted down the hotel corridor, he was said to be singing to himself, ‘They tried to make me sign a prenup but I said no, no, no.’

  The hotel in question was the Shore Club Hotel in Miami, where Amy and Blake booked a £2,500-a-night room for their wedding trip. While there, they certainly celebrated in style. It is estimated that they spent £1,000 on room service, including countless bottles of Veuve Clicquot champagne at £90 a time. They even had the in-house masseur visit them.

  ‘Amy told Blake that she’d spare no expense – she’s working so hard now that they tried to cram two weeks’ worth of fun into two days,’ said a friend. ‘They locked themselves in and wouldn’t even leave to let the chambermaids change the linen! Every few hours, they’d call and ask for bubbly and occasionally French fries. They seemed far more interested in booze than food!’ It is estimated that the bill for their stay eventually came to £9,000 all in.

  The events of the day of the wedding are still somewhat mysterious. It is known, though, that Amy wore a short floral-patterned sundress and Blake wore a retro grey suit for the brief ceremony at the Miami-Dade County Marriage License Bureau in Florida. Marriage clerk Sammy Calixte, who conducted the ceremony, said, ‘They came in to get married and they were alone. I read the vows and each one said “I do.” When I pronounced them man and wife, they hugged and kissed.’

  Amy then changed into a white vest top and denim shorts and, with her new husband in tow, went to the Big Pink Diner restaurant for a celebration meal. The Big Pink Diner had recently been patronised by Tony Blair while he stayed at Bee Gee Robin Gibb’s beach mansion. The married couple arrived back at the hotel separately. Confronted by reporters, Blake said, with a wink, ‘We had a good day but I can’t really talk about it.’ Back together, they repaired to the pool bar and carried on the celebrations. When they tried to head out for another walk, they were caught in a tropical downpour.

  With Blake and Amy initially being so coy towards reporters about whether they had indeed wed, the first confirmation came when Blake changed his status on the MySpace website from single to married. Then a spokesperson for the singer confirmed, ‘Amy and Blake got married [on Friday]. They are both very happy.’ Amy then confirmed the marriage herself, during a concert back in London. ‘I don’t know if you heard, but I just got married to the best man in the world,’ she announced, smiling, to rapturous cheers and applause from the audience, which included Elton John and his partner David Furnish. She also said, with a grin, ‘I broke my tooth – it’s not pretty. At least I can just about sing.’ Also during the concert she ribbed Mitch, who was in the audience, with jokes that he now had to pay for her second wedding.

  The couple’s parents had neither been informed of nor included in the marriage. Blake’s father Giles seemed philosophical about this: ‘I spoke to them and they are very happy. We will support him and Amy in whatever they decide to do.’ However, Amy’s parents were said to be far more hurt at their exclusion. ‘I’m not angry, just sad,’ said Mitch. ‘I would have liked to walk her down the aisle.’

  It cannot have been easy for the parents to be excluded and Amy confirms that Mitch was most upset not for himself but for her mother. She hinted that they would try to make it up to them with a second ceremony back in England. ‘We’re gonna do the whole big thing for everyone over here. But we always knew our ceremony was going to be just about me and Blake. We just wanted to go away and do something with no fuss.’ Janis, meanwhile, admits, ‘I thought she would lose interest in him. I didn’t think they would actually get married.’

  On their return to England, the couple went out with Blake’s parents to an Indian restaurant, the Mint Leaf, which stands near the A46 road between Lincoln and Newark. Amy’s presence raised plenty of eyebrows among the customers and also prompted the Sunday Mirror to headline the story with an extraordinary pun: CHICKEN JAZZFREZI, AMY? ‘They had booked the Saturday before and the Civils are regular customers, so there was nothing unusual about that,’ said the waiter who looked after Amy, who was wearing a green top and tight jeans, and her in-laws. ‘It was the first time Amy had met her parents-in-law and we think it’s great that they brought her here. I didn’t realise who it was at first but customers kept asking and one of our staff members recognised her. After that I was a bit nervous and tried to make everything perfect.

  ‘There was a real buzz in the restaurant that evening and everyone was talking about it,’ he added. ‘She was fine with all the attention and was getting on very well with the in-laws all night. Everyone left the restaurant with a smile on their face that evening – it was really exciting for all the people there.’

  Amy and Blake, too, left the Mint Leaf with smiles on their faces. However, their married bliss was interrupted cruelly on Wednesday, 8 August. It should have been one of the happiest nights of Amy’s life. She discovered she had been nominated in three categories at the MTV Video Music Awards. However, she was instead rushed into A&E at University College London Hospital at 1 a.m. A spokesman for Island Records said, ‘Amy Winehouse was admitted to UCLH this morning suffering from severe
exhaustion.’

  However, a fuller story soon emerged. On the Monday she had touched down at Heathrow Airport, after performing at a music festival in Chicago. She and Blake immediately began drinking their way through pubs from Hounslow to Camden. Thus started a three-day binge, during which Amy was said to look ‘like a zombie – white as a sheet and trembling’. Towards the end of the session, Amy is said to have taken a drug overdose and later described the experience as ‘one of the most terrifying moments of my life’.

  She told the News of the World, ‘I don’t know how to explain what happened. I can’t remember what I looked like. I couldn’t recognise myself. It was terrifying – I was terrified. I was so out of control. It just happened. It shocked me. I’m sorry – I just don’t know what got in to me.’

  After having her stomach pumped at the UCLH, she was then moved, with one newspaper claiming she was taken to the Priory in Roehampton, and another countering that she was actually recuperating at a luxury Hampshire hotel. Her father Mitchell would not confirm where she was staying, only that he was trying to get his daughter to eat. ‘She’s skinny as anything and dehydrated and looks like she’s just come from a concentration camp,’ he said. ‘She’s barely eating. She’s not sleeping. I try to get her to eat but that’s easier said than done. I know that if she doesn’t eat she’s going to die. There’s no reason for her to want to self-destruct like this.’

  Wherever Amy went immediately after the UCLH, she ultimately ended up at the Causeway Retreat in Essex. It is an apt venue for any celebrity, since it has been written up in some very glamorous publications. Tatler magazine says of the Causeway, ‘We’re confident you’ll be in good hands.’ The Sun describes the centre as ‘state-of-the-art’ and compares it to a ‘5-star hotel with a gym, swimming pool and games room’, adding that ‘it’s even got a music therapy room’. London’s Evening Standard said, ‘The Causeway Retreat fans say its location makes it unique. It cuts people off from the world, quite literally, giving a sense of a new beginning.’ As for what the Causeway says of itself, its website boasts, ‘We have demonstrated great success in helping clients move beyond underlying problems and onto a path of true recovery.’

  True recovery was just what the doctor ordered for Amy as she arrived at the Causeway. Within forty-eight hours, she reportedly visited a brain specialist in London for a brain check. This was because, during her overdose, she had experienced a seizure. A neurologist at Queen Hospital explained that this was a routine procedure: ‘The brain is an electrical organ so drug use can caused generalised discharges of electricity, presenting as seizures, which can be life-threatening. It’s routine for anyone who has suffered a seizure to have a scan for other damage or tumours.’

  Asked about this story, Amy’s camp gave a firm ‘no comment’. However, a source close to Amy did reveal why she left the Causeway. ‘She was supposed to stay for a few weeks and sort herself out. But after a couple of decent meals she insisted she was fit to go home. She wanted to leave Tuesday evening. People close to her are devastated. But Blake wants her to return to normality – and we all know what their normality is.’

  Not that, it seems, Amy and Blake were particularly missed back at the Causeway. The couple were accused of disturbing the peaceful atmosphere at the retreat, with fingers being particularly pointed at Blake. ‘It’s supposed to be a peaceful backdrop to help people deal with their problems,’ said an insider. ‘But Amy and Blake kept rowing and spoiling the ambience. While Amy would be welcomed back with open arms, I’m not sure they’d say the same for Blake.’

  It was also said that, although Amy was the one seeking help, it was all too often Blake who hogged the attention. He also apparently upset staff at UCLH, too. This only strengthened the urgent resolve of Amy’s family to try to separate the pair, at least while Amy was seeking help. Very soon, that resolve was to become far, far more urgent.

  On a Wednesday, in late August, Amy and Blake were staying at London’s posh Sanderson Hotel. Called ‘A glamorous heaven’ by the Sunday Times Style Magazine, ‘an urban oasis’ by Vanity Fair, and ‘the hippest hotel in the world’ by GQ, the Sanderson is one of the capital’s swishest hotels. The couple hoped that its opulent splendour would be a suitable venue for them to lick their wounds and recover from the turbulence of recent weeks. They had checked in on the Monday, and, when news reached Amy’s brother Alex that they had not left their room for forty-eight hours, he tried to visit his sister to check that all was OK. It is believed that, at Blake’s request, Alex was prevented from entering the hotel.

  Later that day, Mitch arrived at the hotel and dined with Amy and Blake at one of the Sanderson’s posh, exclusive restaurants. He left the hotel around 10 p.m., leaving Amy and Blake seemingly in good spirits as they played pool with friends and continued to drink. Around 11 p.m., Amy met a mystery woman and seemed to take receipt of a package as the pair hugged. In the early hours of the morning, Amy and Blake returned to their hotel room. However, they were not about to retire quietly and the real drama of the evening was just about to start.

  An argument broke out between the pair. It was a mighty, vicious, voluminous row that echoed and resounded around the hotel, disturbing other guests. A posh table in the hotel room was smashed during this row and, at about 3 a.m., there was such concern for Amy and so many complaints from other guests about the noise, that the hotel concierge called the police. Soon after this, Amy burst out of the room in floods of tears, with Blake in hot pursuit, screaming after her. They piled into a lift, in which another hotel guest was already travelling. The guest says, ‘She was cowering in the corner and I thought he was going to hit her. When the lift door opened, she took off across the lobby at a real pace. He was chasing after her and was about five paces behind by the time she got to the main hotel entrance.’

  Amy sprinted down Berners Street and was clearly in a state of total panic. Blake was in hot pursuit still but could not catch up. An eyewitness says, ‘Amy was so hell-bent on getting away from him that she ran into the middle of the street and flagged down a random car that happened to be full of girls. She was saying, “Quickly, I have to get in, I have to get away, please help me.” Her voice was breaking. You could tell she was scared.’

  Amy was allowed into the car, which set off at great speed, leaving Blake trailing in its wake. Amy was dropped off outside Charing Cross train station and she walked into a twenty-four-hour shop and bought some cigarettes. ‘She was looking completely out of her head,’ said a fellow shopper.

  Meanwhile, Blake had been left behind and was staggering around in a total daze, trying to find Amy. He wandered around looking in doorways and down alleys. From time to time he shouted her name, but to no avail, of course. He also repeatedly tried to call her on her mobile phone. Eventually, he managed to get through to her by phone. A tense and loud conversation ensued. After the pair calmed down, they arranged to meet up at around 4 a.m. They then walked back to the hotel, arm in arm, at around 4.45 a.m.

  However, any hope that they could put this latest drama behind them was vain indeed. The entire fight had been played out in front of not just the public, but also in front of press photographers who had snapped plenty of photographs of Amy and Blake. The two were covered in blood and scratches. Amy also had blood pouring through her silk ballet shoes, leading to speculation that she had been injecting heroin in between her toes. They talk about washing your dirty linen in public – this was more like washing your bloodstained linen in public.

  Naturally, the press went immediately to town on the story. On hearing of the drama, Mitch rushed immediately to the hotel to be at his daughter’s side. So concerned was he for her wellbeing that he even investigated legal routes to get her and Blake apart.

  ‘Mitch is desperate for Amy to get some proper lengthy treatment but she’ll only do it with Blake. Mitch even looked to see if he could get a restraining order against him but it’s legally impossible,’ said a source. The police did, though, arrive and later ann
ounced, ‘After receiving a complaint from a third party, police spoke with a woman but she made no allegation of criminal offences.’ The room that Amy and Blake had been staying in was reportedly a mess. A source at the hotel said that the bedroom and bathroom had bloodstains in them. One – highly doubtful – report claimed that the damage came to £9,000. ‘The in-house cleaners were totally shocked when they entered the room. I’ve certainly never seen anything like it before,’ said the source. ‘They had to get an outside firm to clean blood off the walls and then there was a hefty paint job.’

  After speaking to Mitch, Amy and Blake left the hotel on Thursday morning in a silver Mercedes. Naturally, the press obsession with the story was to go on for days. Many reports suggested that Blake might have beaten up Amy. But she was quick to dispute these claims, using a seemingly unconventional route to do so.

  Mario Lavandeira, better known as Perez Hilton, is a celebrity blogger. Based in Los Angeles, California, he has built up an extraordinary level of contacts and influence in the world of showbiz. His blog was originally called PageSixSixSix.com – after the Page Six gossip column of the New York Post – and is now known simply as perezhilton.com. He claims to have up to 8 million page views in any twenty-four-hour period. He has become close friends with the US socialite Paris Hilton – hence his nickname – and is often turned to by celebrities across the globe who wish to get their story out to the masses quickly, and with some control over the message.