Blake Fielder-Civil, the ex-husband of Amy Winehouse, has taken part in a lengthy sit-down interview, opening up about his sober life now – and his haunted past with the late singer
In an interview that stretched over two hours, Blake Fielder-Civil pored over every detail of his romance with the late Amy Winehouse, or at least his side of the story. Bemoaning the way he has been, in his opinion, villainised over the Grammy award winning singer’s decline into addiction and death at the age of 27, Blake also opened up about his life today – sober and in a “happy relationship”.
Blake – who met Amy in 2005, insists that he has been made a “convenient scapegoat” for her issues, accusing others of ignoring her addictions and not getting her the help she needed. “Our love had nothing to do with addiction, and addiction had nothing to do with our love, that’s where it went, it wasn’t who we were,” he told the We Need to Talk podcast.
These days, Blake said he is not “in addiction” and has found a “happy relationship”, but admitted that if Amy were still alive they, “would still be in each other’s lives.”
READ MORE: Blake Fielder-Civil says ‘I’m not responsible for Amy Winehouse’s death’ in bombshell chat
Sparks flew quickly between Blake and Amy, who he tells podcast host, Paul Brunson, he first met in a pub where she was playing pool. Admitting it was, “too intense, too fast”, Amy got his name tattooed on her chest after only knowing him for weeks, and while they were both still seeing other people. Adding that there was “no hiding” her new ink from her exisiting boyfriend, Blake added: ” Amy could be ruthless”.
The tumultuous romance saw them break up, more than once. Amy’s most famous album, Back to Black, was inspired by one split, with hit song Rehab telling how her team tried to get her professional help, but she refused.
Blake claims in the podcast that Amy only ever used cannabis when they met, but it was an ex-boyfriend who introduced her to cocaine, not him. However, he did admit that she smoked heroin for the first time with him. In 2007, the pair were back together, and tied the knot in a drug-free Miami wedding in May that year. “Neither of us were in addiction at that point,” he said. “Amy had a little bit of drink on our wedding day. No drugs. The narrative was so different at times”. However, he also admitted that neither of them knew anyone over there to buy drugs from.
But their sobriety never did last. Blake detailed one days-long binge followed by “three or four months” of daily use, he alleged.
Later that year, Amy collapsed after doing a ‘speedball’ – cocaine and heroin – and had to be rushed to hospital where her stomach was pumped and she was given a shot of adrenaline. Her father Mitch once claimed that Blake left her bedside to go buy more drugs. “Amy looked like a skeleton because she was so thin,” a friend told The Mirror at the time. “She was foaming at the mouth and fitting for about a minute… River Phoenix died from an overdose after a speedball, so Amy is really very lucky to be alive.”
Things went from bad to worse, with Blake locked up for a year over a bar fight in 2006, an incident he claims in the podcast only happened because he was sticking up for a pal. During this time, Amy cheated and Blake claims Mitch encouraged him to end the marriage. Blake told the podcast that he was promised money for a house deposit but never spoke to his father-in-law again.
Blake did file for divorce, and Amy got clean from drugs, but her addiction to alcohol was still haunting her. Around this time, Blake moved up north and went to another rehab, where he met his next girlfriend, Sarah Aspin.
Blake and Sarah’s romance caused ructions with his famous ex, especially when they welcomed a son, Jack. Sarah told Amy to “keep her hands off” Blake, saying: “He is mine and we are a family now.” During the podcast though, Blake admitted he had remained in touch with Amy right up to her death, which occurred shortly after her ex-husband went back to prison for burglary and a firearm offence in 2011.
Blake said they had been exchanging letters, even discussing the possibility they could get back together one day, before her final missive said that they should be focussing on their friendship. He said he replied to the letter, but she never read it, because on 23 July 2011 the singer died – she did not have drugs in her system at the time of her death, but was five times over the legal drinking limit.
Amy was also in another relationship at the time of her death, and her family had said she was happier than she had been in a long time. Blake described finding out from prison officers his ex-wife had died, revealing how he tried to call her twice on the day she was found but had “no answer”.
At first he thought it was a “hoax” until prison guards showed him the headlines and he realised his “worst nightmare” had come true. After he served his second sentence, he and Sarah welcomed another child, Lola-Rose, in 2013.
But heartbreak and tragedy has followed Blake since. His own mother called the social services on him and Sarah and their children were removed from his care, and given up for adoption. Just weeks ago, his ex Sarah was found dead in her home – a council maisonette in Leeds, West Yorkshire, and its been said its likely that Blake would have no idea at first she passed away.
His mother Georgette Civil said to the Daily Mail about Sarah, 47: “It’s absolutely tragic – truly tragic. [But] I would have thought Blake doesn’t know.”
It was Georgette who contacted the social services and ensured her grandchildren were removed from their parents care due to their ongoing drug use, something that she has said ended the relationship with her son for good. In her book, Letting Blake Go, she wrote: “I looked down at Jack in his pushchair and thought, ‘I can’t condemn you to a life with junkies’. We went to see Lola. I held her in my arms for the first and last time. I kissed her goodbye and walked away from her, Blake and Jack, feeling as if my heart was breaking. I knew I would never see any of them again.
“I rang social services and betrayed my own son. I told them Blake was still a drug user and that I had provided clean urine samples. Blake phoned me two days later. He was crying, screaming and pleading with me to withdraw my statement – but I didn’t. I never heard from my son again and I know I never will.”
Blake and Sarah are reported to have split up before her death, with Blake moving to a small bedsit Headingley, Leeds. A neighbour said of the privately-educated former video production assistant, “Blakey is alright, he keeps himself to himself. But from what happened with Amy, and where she took him, to where he is now. It’s crazy. He keeps his head down. He’s not an issue. But other people are up to all sorts.”
Blake is said to have vanished from the run down area several months ago, and is now thought to be living with a new girlfriend.
Later, in 2021, Freddie, Georgette’s other son also died, also at the age of 27. He had been in a mental health unit before he ran away from treatment and booked himself into a B&B in Leeds for £40-a-night, where he died of a heroin overdose.
After Amy’s death in 2011, Sarah spoke out about the huge amount of grief Blake was dealing with, and even went to see him in prison. “He is devastated and shattered,” she said. “He just can’t take it in that she’s dead and he’ll never see her again. Blake rang me on Saturday after the prison authorities told him she’d died. I just couldn’t console him. He was in total shock. Blake is the father of our son. But I saw him and Amy together and I know they were really in love and they were soulmates.
“She always loved him and he always loved her – but it was just never going to work. Basically they couldn’t live with each other and they could not live without each other.”
During his podcast appearance, Blake described the heartbreak he experienced over his ex-wife’s death, who he dubbed his “best friend”. He said he had been “mourning alone in jail, ostracised in the press and like ‘it’s his fault’. The whole thing just fed into my whole thing of addiction again and using and I’m worthless. Everything’s on me. Took me a long time to get out of that and give my head a real good shake to look at myself.”
Do you have a story to tell? Email: emma.mackenzie@reachplc.com
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
