Andrew Morris, Amy Winehouse’s live-in security guard, heard her laughing and listening to music on the last night of her life. The next day on July 23, she told the security at her house that she was going to sleep at around 10 a.m, per People. When someone checked on her a little before 4 p.m. she was unresponsive. First responders were unable to revive the struggling singer.
When the police arrived at the apartment, they found three empty bottles of vodka in her bedroom. The coroner discovered Winehouse had a blood alcohol level of 0.4 percent at the time of her death, more than five times the legal limit for drunk driving in England, and in this case, a fatal amount that likely stopped her breathing and sent her into a coma. They labeled it “death by misadventure.”
Her best friend Tyler James believed that fame had played a large part in her demise. “Fame is like terminal cancer; I wouldn’t wish it on anyone,” Winehouse once told him. “Amy was a girl in her twenties suffering from addiction, and everybody was a part of it,” James told The Times (via People). “Everybody was watching it. When you go to rehab, you have to be the strongest you’ve ever been in your life, when you are the weakest you’ve ever been in your life. And she had to go through that in front of people.”
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
