Mitch Winehouse recalled the tragic day he found out his superstar daughter Amy had died on July 23.
Mitch was asleep in a New York hotel room when Amy’s bodyguard Andrew Morris called to break the tragic news.
“He was crying and just said, ‘You have to come home.’” Mitch told Anderson Cooper's new syndicated talk show for CNN
“I said, ‘Is Amy dead?’ and he said, ‘Yes’. I couldn’t believe it. I was definitely in shock and I just handed the phone away.”
The 60-year-old who was launching his own career as a singer in the US when 27 year old Amy died.
“I was going to be appearing at a jazz club and Amy had been so excited for me. But within three hours we were packed, gone and back at the airport. Ray, Amy’s manager, had arrived in New York to help me for my show but he came straight back with me and my cousin.
“There were three of us just sitting on the plane. I knew we had to somehow get through this.”
Tests have revealed no conclusive reasons for Amy’s death but have established that there were no illegal drugs in her body.
Mitch believes that Amy, who was discovered in her North London home, died after having a fit caused by a tranquilliser she was taking to help with her withdrawal symptoms from alcohol.
He said: “There were prescription drugs. She was taking Librium. It is a relaxant given to people who are detoxing. But it increases the chance of seizures.
“I think she had a seizure and this was the time when there was no one there to rescue her.
“I was there once, it was pure fluke. She just hit the floor. A couple of times her face swelled up. She’d had a series of seizures before, bought about by her binge-drinking. What else could it have been?”
Mitch also believes that Amy gave up illegal drugs in 2008 and had cut back her boozing and was in good spirits.
“Everything Amy did, she did to excess. She drank to excess and did detox to excess. But the periods of abstinence were becoming longer and the periods of drinking were becoming shorter. If her death had happened four years ago it would have been fair enough. But I thought we were out of the woods.
“She was not depressed. Even when she was drinking she was in the most fantastic spirits.
An inquest is set for October.
