Mitch Winehouse, father of the late soul singer Amy Winehouse, is threatening legal action over the way he has been portrayed in the upcoming documentary, Amy: The Girl Behind The Name. The documentary will chronicle the life of the award-winning singer in the lead-up to her death in 2011 at the age of 27.
Speaking to The Sun, Winehouse states, "I am painted as being an absent father during her last years. It gives the impression the family weren’t there.
"I was there for her. We were all there every day and Amy phoned me up to seven times a day. From this film there's no impression of that whatsoever. Especially when she was sick I was there all the time."
"We can't stop it but when the film does come out we can sue for libel or slander. Our lawyers will view the film and reserve the right to do that and see whether there are any grounds."
He also expressed his unhappiness with the appearance of his daughter's ex-boyfriend Blake Fielder-Civil in the documentary. Winehouse goes on to say, "Blake is saying in the film that the reason Amy was like that was because of me — not because he gave her crack and heroin and because he completely manipulated and coerced her into Class A drugs.
"If the real truth came out about Blake, he wouldn't be able to walk down the street so how they can allow him to make that claim about me is so hurtful and beyond belief."
In addition to Mitch Winehouse's comments, the Winehouse family have released an official statement that they "would like to disassociate themselves from the forthcoming film about their much missed and beloved Amy".
The Amy documentary is directed by Asif Kapadia and is due to be premiered at Cannes Film Festival next month.
