A tormented Amy Winehouse began “slashing her arms and wrists with compasses, razor blade and shards of glass” within months of turning 10 years of age, according to a new, tell-all book about the singer’s troubled life.
In Amy Winehouse – The Untold Story, author Chloe Govan detailed how the five-time Grammy winner tried to kill herself after her dad, Mitch Winehouse, left her mother Janis for another woman when she was aged nine.
“Within just months of reaching double figures, Amy’s anxiety had reached fever pitch,” Govan writes. “She’s already been slashing her arms and wrists with compasses, razor blade and shards of glass — but the worse was yet to come.”
An anonymous Winhouse friend told the biographer: “Amy was such a smiley, happy girl on the surface — maybe she was a good actress as well as a good singer — so it came as a surprise. I only knew how bad things had become when she overdosed.
PHOTOS: Amy Winehouse’s Lost Childhood Photos
“That day, I found Amy clutching her stomach in agony. She started foaming at the mouth and her eyes were rollings. It was easily the most terrifying thing I’d ever seen. She’s overdosed on pills because she didn’t want to live. She told me she’d wanted to go for a long sleep.
“I stayed with her until it worse off because she begged me not to tell anyone. Plenty of people would say I was a bad friend for not raining the alarm but I was truly scared.”‘ Lamented the pal, “When I asked her what had made her do it, she said it was nothing and she’d just been strupid. She swore blind it was the last time.”
The Back To Black singer was found dead at her apartment in London in June 2011. She was 27.
According to Govan, Winehouse’s troubles began at a very early age. While she sometimes spent weekend giving her beloved grandmother pedicures, the book revealed “there was another side to her — perhaps borne out of childhood trauma — that she struggled to control.”
PHOTOS: Amy Winehouse Through The Years
“Amy had some gorgeous childhood friends that she couldn’t quite complete with,” the same friend, who did not want to be named, said.
“She blossomed into a real beauty in her late teens, but earlier on she hadn’t really grown into her looks. She was seen as a bit of an ugly ducking and she felt awkward around some of the others. It didn’t help that she never cared for tidiness, so by the end of the day she would look like a scarecrow. She was still a cute child, but she told me on more than occasion that she felt ugly.”
Notes the author: “Feeling increasingly alienated from the preteen pageant queens and pink-adorned princesses clutching Barbie dolls — on Amy’s part, she’d rather have been mutilating one than playing with it — she fell into depression.”
It had previously been thought that Winehouse’s drug problem hadn’t began until she met her future husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, however Govan traced it back to her parent’s split.
PHOTOS: Take A Peek Inside The Home Where Amy Winehouse Tragically Died
“By tradition, most Jewish families are very close-knit and a value is put on seeming respectable. Divorce is considered shameful, so when Amy went through a lot of pain at her parents’ separation,” the friend said.
“She might have put on a front like she didn’t care, but to her, seeing her father leave her for another woman was the ultimate abandonment.
The friend concluded: “As Amy grew up, things didn’t get much better and actually the divide between her and these types of good Jewish families got even bigger. By ten she’d had her first spliff and, in some people’s eyes, was on a bit of a road to ruin.”
If you, or anyone you know, is struggling with thoughts of suicide, please immediately seek help — you can speak with a skilled, trained counselor at a national Suicide Prevention Lifeline crisis center in your area, anytime 24/7 — call 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
Just last week Lindsay Lohan was telling Piers Morgan she doesn’t need rehab because she’s not addicted to drugs, so naturally that story ended with her already wanting to leave rehab because they took away the drug she’s addicted to. TMZ reports: Sources close to Lindsay tell TMZ … doctors at the rehab center evaluated Read More …
Michael Douglas’ troubled son Cameron is serving a 10-year prison sentence for drug possession and dealing and the actor believes his son is not being treated fairly because of his famous last name.
Douglas, 68, spoke to New York magazine about his son’s troubled history, saying that Cameron started doing drugs at 13 and was a crystal-meth dealer when he was caught up in a DEA drug sting.
PHOTOS: Celebs Who Have Done Jail Time
“He was offered either a ten-year sentence or the chance to cooperate with their investigation,” Michael said about his son.
“His first call was to me, and I said, ‘You should cooperate.’ Naming names when it comes to drugs has a bad connotation, but the reality is, everyone talks. And it’s better than being in jail.”
The Douglas family is Hollywood royalty, and Michael says he believes that Cameron was unfairly targeted because of his family fame.
“I have gone from being a very disappointed but loving father who felt his son got what was due him to realizing that Lady Justice’s blindfold is really slipping.
“I’m not defending Cameron as a drug dealer or drug addict, but I believe, because of his last name, he’s been made an example.”
PHOTOS: Pushy Paps Clash With Michael Douglas & Wife Catherine
Michael reflected on his son’s “drug slip” just as he was scheduled to enter a nine-month drug-rehab program.
“I could have strangled him,” he said.
A judge added four and half years to Cameron’s sentence but his troubles behind bars were far worse. He was sent to solitary confinement for eleven months and family visits were denied for two years.
PHOTOS: Michael Douglas On Daddy Duty In The Park
“When he had the ‘slip,’ I said, ‘You were two weeks away from starting your rehab program!’ But years of shooting up heroin screws up your system.”
Cameron is not eligible for parole until 2018.
Michael is starring in the upcoming Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra that will air on HBO on May 26.
