Amy Winehouse: Brother says bulimia is what killed her

Amy Winehouse officially died of “death by misadventure” related to alcohol. But her brother now says there may have been another reason for the singer’s passing in 2011 at age 27: bulimia.

In an interview with the Guardian ahead of an exhibition at the Jewish Museum in London about the late singer, Alex Winehouse opened up about Amy for the first time since her death.

(Why’s he been mum till now? “If I’m going to speak, it’s because I -- or we, the [Amy Winehouse] foundation -– are doing something really, really cool,” he said. “I’m not going to talk for the sake of talking.”)

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Perhaps the most shocking words in the interview: “What really killed her was the bulimia.” Shocking because, at the time of her death, the “Back to Black”singer’s blood-alcohol level was more than five times the legal limit, around .42%.

Regarding the eating disorder, at age 17 Amy was, Alex said, hanging out with girls who were “all doing it.”

“They’d put loads of rich sauces on their food, scarf it down and throw it up. They stopped doing it, but Amy never really did… We all knew she was doing it, but it’s almost impossible [to tackle] especially if you’re not talking about it. It’s a real dark, dark issue.

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“She suffered from bulimia very badly. That’s not, like, a revelation -- you knew just by looking at her… She would have died eventually, the way she was going, but what really killed her was the bulimia… Absolutely terrible.”

The interviewer asked him to clarify.

“I think that it left her weaker and more susceptible. Had she not had an eating disorder, she would have been physically stronger.”

Thoughts? Share them in comments. Should Alex Winehouse’s words be taken literally?

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