Winehouse family clash with in-laws - News in brief - Evening Standard
       

Winehouse family clash with in-laws

The parents of troubled singer Amy Winehouse and her husband Blake Fielder-Civil are publicly at odds over the pair's drug problems.

Amy's father-in-law, Giles Fielder-Civil, urged the singer's record company to do more to stop the couple taking drugs. He also called on fans to stop buying Winehouse's records - to send a message to the pair to sort out their problems.

But Winehouse's father, Mitch, defended the record company and said that telling fans to boycott his daughter's albums was "clutching at straws".

They gave interviews on Radio 5 Live as fears continue to grow for the married couple. Winehouse, who has cancelled a string of performances, was recently seen bloodstained and covered in scratches after quitting rehab with her husband.

The Back to Black singer shocked her fans with her blood-soaked ballet shoes, bruises to her neck, bandages on her arms and make-up smeared down her face. Fielder-Civil had scratches covering his face and neck.

Brit-award winner Winehouse was admitted to hospital earlier this month after a reported overdose of heroin, ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine and alcohol.

Mr Fielder-Civil told the Victoria Derbyshire programme on Radio 5 Live: "Why don't the record company do more? We believe that the record company should be proactive in helping the couple get better. At the moment they seem to be hiding behind a label that the pair aren't drug addicts, they're exhausted or whatever."

He said: "The pair have gone on holiday. That isn't helping them. It's just getting them out of the way. We urge the record company to do something. There are a lot of people that surround the couple who do have a vested interest," and added: "It's about time that their friends and their professional colleagues say to them 'enough is enough'."

The headmaster added: "Perhaps it's time to stop buying records. It's a possibility ... by doing that, that affects the record company and the record company may take notice."

He called for Winehouse's contract to cease until she recovered or for music bosses to force the couple to enter a rehabilitation unit "where they can't leave until they sort themselves out". A spokeswoman for Island Records said it was not commenting.

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