ABC News: Winehouse In-Laws: Go to Rehab! Troubled Singer's In-Laws Tell Fans to Boycott Her Till She's Clean
By CHRISTINE BROUWER
LONDON, Aug. 28, 2007
In a live radio interview broadcast throughout Britain today,
Amy Winehouse's parents-in-law urged fans not to buy the
singer's records as a signal to their
son and his troubled wife to stop using drugs.
Giles and Georgette Fielder-Civil, parents of Blake Fielder-Civil,
Winehouse's husband of nearly four months, also said Winehouse
should not be given any awards or nominated for any prizes
until she has kicked the habit.
Fans should make it clear to Winehouse that "her addiction
and behavior are not acceptable," Giles Fielder-Civil
said.
Winehouse, nearly as famous for her heavy drinking as her
husky, soulful voice and black beehive hair, made headlines
last month when she collapsed in a London street, apparently
from an overdose of heroin, ecstasy, cocaine and alcohol.
In seeming contradiction with the lyrics of her hit song "Rehab," in
which she sings of defying a doctor's order to get treatment
for her addictions, Winehouse and her husband checked themselves
into a rehabilitation center after the incident.
But just days later, Winehouse and Fielder-Civil left the
clinic and Winehouse canceled her August performances.
That night, the pair were spotted entering a London pub.
Georgette Fielder-Civil said she believes her son and daughter-in-law
are using crack, cocaine and heroin, and should be stopped
before it's too late.
"I think they both need to get medical help, before
one of them, if not both of them, will eventually die," she
said in an especially emotional part of the nearly 22-minute-long
interview on BBC Radio Five Live's morning show.
Just last week, shocking images of a bruised and bloodied
Winehouse appeared in the British press. Her husband, with
deep red scratches on his face and neck, was at her side.
The couple denied that the pictures, which showed Winehouse
wearing blood-stained ballet slippers and bandages on her
arms, were evidence of a physical fight, despite widespread
rumors.
British police said no charges were filed.
Fielder-Civil's
parents described their desperate plea this morning as
a last-ditch attempt to force the couple to face their deteriorating
health situation head-on.
They're in "abject denial," Giles Fielder-Civil
told radio host Victoria Derbyshire. "They don't see
themselves as having a problem, and they're quite aggressive
in their defense of themselves."
Robert Poznanovich, 51, co-founder and CEO of Addiction Intervention
Resources, an international consulting agency that helps
families deal with addiction, said the Fielder-Civils' decision
to talk about a family crisis on live radio was a sign of
desperation.
"They probably view this as though they're battling
for their son and daughter-in-law's life," Poznanovich
told ABC News in a telephone interview. "Their fear
of doing nothing is greater than their fear of doing something."
Poznanovich said he applauded the Fielder-Civils for their
openness. "The greatest form of enabling is silence," he
said.
Just moments after the Fielder-Civils' interview aired this
morning, the same radio program received a call from Winehouse's
father, Mitch Winehouse.
"It's a horrible situation," Winehouse said, his
tone urgent, and sometimes sounding on the brink of tears. "Our
family and Blake's family are living through hell."
But Mitch Winehouse said he doubted asking fans not to buy
his daughter's records would help the situation.
"Will it do any good, no, it won't," he said. "It
won't send any message to Amy at all."
"At some point they're going to hit rock bottom," Winehouse
continued. "And at that point they will say, 'Listen,
I don't want to do this anymore. I've got responsibilities,
I've got a family that loves us, and, you know, I don't want
to hurt them anymore.'"
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