"She knew we all of us knew but back then they were still really taboos subjects still. "It's something you feel deep shame other and its not as simple as wanting to control your bodyweight there’s much more mentally going on with it," she explains. After that point she was making herself sick all the time," says Catriona, who realised Amy was bulimic.ĭevastatingly, close pal and stylist Naomi Parry says she thinks Amy was trying to hide her bulimia from those around her. I think at the time I was more worried about her eating.
"That’s why mistakes were made because the wise one of the family had gone."īest friend Catriona Gourlay says Cynthia's death "lit the fuse" and that's when "things started to unravel". And of course when Amy was ill my mother wasn't there to help and guide me," he adds. My mum was like the nuclear option."Īmy's family and friends believe Cynthia's death was a major factor in Amy going off the rails and turning to booze and drugs.Īs a tribute to her grandmother, Amy got a tattoo of a pin-up girl on her right shoulder, with mum Janis explaining that her daughter was "devastated because her nan had gone".Īmy got a massive tattoo on her arm in honour of her nanĭad Mitch believes certain "mistakes" involving Amy would not have been made had Cynthia been alive. "I was pretty strong with her, not like my mum was. When Amy's parents divorced when she was 10, Janis found it difficult to put limits on her and she herself confessed to going through long periods of being "horrible to her mum".īut Cynthia was there to keep Amy on the straight and narrow, with Mitch explaining: "Amy was an incredible strong personality and Janice kind of struggled. It was Cynthia who encouraged son Mitch and daughter-in-law Janis to send Amy to the Susi Earnshaw Theatre School, where she got vocal education and learned to tap dance. Īmy was devastated when her grandmother Cynthia, who had also been a singer and was incredibly close to her, sadly passed away in 2006. Get the news you want straight to your inbox. BBC / Curious Films / Winehouse Family Photo)