AMY Winehouse’s unique talent made her a music legend, while her chaotic relationships and addiction issues made headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Here we take a look at her rollercoaster relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil — which takes centre stage in Sam Taylor Johnson’s 2024 biopic about the singer Back To Black.
Blake Fielder-Civil was born on April 16, 1982, in Northamptonshire.
He is a former video production assistant who is best known as the ex-husband of the late singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse.
Her tumultuous relationship with him had been the inspiration for her second and final studio album, Back To Black, released in 2006.
The album, which included songs like You Know I’m No Good and Back To Black, went on to become her most celebrated work, winning five Grammy Awards in 2008.
The pair were known for their hard drug use and turbulent relationship.
At the time of Amy’s funeral, Blake was serving a 32-month sentence at Armley Prison in Leeds for burglary and a firearm offence.
It was reported that he had been denied compassionate leave by the authorities and that Amy’s father did not want him to attend.
His current girlfriend Sarah Aspin told The Sun: “He did not ask to be at Amy’s funeral.
“There is no way he would want to be there in handcuffs. He has too much respect for Amy and her family to do that.”
Amy’s funeral was attended by family and friends, including producer Mark Ronson, TV star Kelly Osbourne and singer Bryan Adams.
She was later cremated in Golders Green and a private gathering followed at a nearby synagogue.
Blake was married to Amy for two years before they divorced in 2009.
The pair were granted a divorce on grounds of adultery, which Amy admitted.
Two years later the singer tragically died of alcohol poisoning.
Her body was discovered by paramedics at her flat in Camden on August 23, 2011.
It’s devastating she’s not here, I think about her all the time”
Blake
An inquest into her death later revealed that she had died from alcohol poisoning.
In 2023, Blake opened up on what would have been her 40th birthday and how he would have “done everything differently” about their relationship.
“It’s sad but I wanted to say happy birthday to Amy,” he said on Good Morning Britain.
“It’s devastating she’s not here. I think about her all the time, I thought about her this morning when I said my happy birthday to her, she was my best friend.
“If it wasn’t for certain factors I think it could have been a different outcome. Everything happened very quickly for Amy. We were young.”
Blake went on to have a brief relationship and a son with Sarah Aspin.
He met her in rehab, before continuing an on-off relationship with Amy in 2010.
The video producer and Amy had reportedly planned to remarry, but he ended up in jail for burglary and possession of a firearm in June 2011.
He then got back with Sarah and had a daughter called Lola.
Although he doesn’t speak about his children, he reportedly has their names tattooed on his body.
When his son was just 15 months old, Blake was rushed to hospital and left fighting for his life after a substance abuse binge.
At the time Amy’s father Mitch took to X writing: “Remember Amy loved him. Let’s pray for his recovery.”
He was put into an induced coma and eventually pulled through.
Sarah also told The Sun at the time: “I’m praying he’ll survive, but I’m having to prepare myself that he may never wake up.”
Blake’s last public appearance came on Good Morning Britain in April 2024, when he spoke about the way he was portrayed in Sam Taylor Johnson‘s biopic Back to Black, saying it showed him in a “more accurate representation”.
He said: “Not in a sense of being let off the hook or whitewashed, as [has] been alluded to… just in a sense of it wasn’t all about addiction.
“As much as that might have been the salacious headlines, and the paparazzi’s goal, there was addiction, but it was only an aspect.
“The relationship started like every relationship does.”
Amy and Blake met in a pub back in 2003 and within a week, the singer got her famous inking of his name ‘Blake’ across her chest.
Their relationship was on-and-off due to their infidelities and various periods in prison.
However, the couple decided to give love a second chance and got engaged with a diamond ring from Tiffanys.
They eventually married at a secret ceremony in Miami in May 2007.
Speaking about their relationship, Amy’s first manager Nick Godwyn told The Times in 2007 that “Amy changed overnight after she met Blake. She just sounded completely different. Her personality became more distant.
“And it seemed to me like that was down to the drugs. When I met her she smoked weed but she thought the people who took class-A drugs were stupid. She used to laugh at them.”
By Dulcie Pearce, Sun film critic
LOVE is a losing game in this biopic about the extraordinary talent that was Amy Winehouse.
The tragic tale reveals how a young Jewish girl from North London came to write powerful songs of love and heartbreak.
This sees director Sam Taylor-Johnson once again taking on the story of one of our greatest musicians, after her 2009 debut, Nowhere Boy, about John Lennon.
But does she do Amy justice? In the first 15 minutes, perhaps not.
It feels like a rose-tinted version of the Winehouse family.
But the moment Blake enters, the foot is on the pedal of this destructive love affair.
Marisa Abela, from BBC’s Industry, takes on her first lead.
From girl-next-door to drug-addicted superstar, she does a sterling job of the complicated character.
Many fans were concerned about her singing, but it is spot on.
Blake Fielder-Civil, by Jack O’Connell, is dealt with sensitively as a fellow lost soul.
And the now-famous cab driver dad, Mitch — Eddie Marsan — comes across as a decent dad.
This is a Hollywood friendly film of the downfall through drugs and dodgy men of a superstar.
A Disney version of Amy’s decline, but still a desperately sad lost love.
