(CNN) — Mitch Winehouse told CNN’s Piers Morgan that he was in New York visiting his cousin’s twin babies when he heard the news of his daughter’s passing.
The singer’s father is a guest on Tuesday’s “Piers Morgan Tonight.” Amy Winehouse, 27, was found dead at her apartment on July 23.
“I was holding one of the babies,” Winehouse said. “And my cousin is English, and he phoned his dad to say that I was there, and I spoke to my uncle. And he said to me, ‘How’s Amy?’ And I said, ‘She’s doing great.’ And as I was talking with him, my mobile rang. I picked up the phone, and it was Amy’s security guard, and he was crying, and he told me that she’d passed away.”
He then recounted the events of the last night of Amy Winehouse’s life.
“She’d had a good day, as most of her days were good days,” Winehouse said. “Her mum, Janis, and Richard, Janis’ boyfriend, went to see her earlier in the day, and she was in good spirits.”
Winehouse went on to explain that Amy was singing and playing the drums in her room until about 1 a.m. The chart-topping five-time Grammy winner was in her London home at the time. Her security guard suggested that she stop playing because the neighbors might complain.
Dad creates Amy Winehouse Foundation“She says, ‘Yes, no problem,’ ” Winehouse said. “And she stopped playing the drum, and he heard her walking around for another half an hour or so, and he thought she’d gone to sleep. He checked on her at about 3 in the morning, and she seemed to be asleep.”
The guard checked on Amy again around 8 a.m.
“He saw that there was a problem, and they called the paramedics, and that was it,” said Winehouse, who heard the news at 11 a.m. New York time.
Morgan asked Winehouse to recall his immediate reaction.
“I had incredible clarity,” he said. “And I wasn’t crying, I wasn’t screaming. In fact, I was holding one of the babies, and I gave the baby to my cousin, and I was comforting the security guard, who — he blamed himself. There was nothing to blame himself for. And I was comforting him, and I was comforting my cousin, I was comforting my uncle. And I was obviously in shock.”
Was a part of Winehouse expecting that he’d one day get that dreaded call, given his daughter’s drug- and alcohol-fueled past?
“No, not at all,” he said. “Had this had happened three or four years previously, to be honest with you, I’d have held my hands up and I would’ve said, ‘Fair enough.’ ”
Winehouse said that his daughter hadn’t used drugs for the past three years. Alcohol, however, was a different issue.
“Unfortunately, the alcohol, as you may be aware, one addiction can follow another, and this is what happened with Amy.”
Winehouse also said that his daughter took on another addiction, albeit a positive one — fitness.
“She was exercising every day,” he said. “She was so fit, incredibly fit. She had a gym at home, and she was exercising for three or four hours a day, if not more.”
Winehouse tries not to harbor too much regret or guilt.
“As a family,” he said, “we really couldn’t have done any more to support her and love her and nurture her in the way that we do with every other member of our family.”
Winehouse also told Morgan that he and his family are “firm believers in life after death, and she’s right here with us all the time.”
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