It's been three years since beloved R&B singer Amy Winehouse died, and now her brother has come forward in a revealing interview to state that bulimia, an eating disorder characterized by episodes of binge eating followed by self-induced vomiting, was the underlying cause of his sister's premature death at age 27, The Independent reports.
Alex Winehouse, 33, said in a recent interview with the Observer that his sister struggled for years with bulimia, leaving her "weaker and more susceptible" to the impact her drug and alcohol addictions had on her body. A coroner's verdict had previously stated that the singer died of "alcohol toxicity" with more than five times the legal drink-driving limit in her blood.
"She would have died eventually, the way she was going," Alex told the Observer. "But what really killed her was the bulimia...Had she not had an eating disorder, she would have been physically stronger." Alex claims that Amy suffered from the eating disorder since her early teens.
"She suffered from bulimia very badly. That's not, like, a revelation - you knew just by looking at her," he said. Alex added that the "Rehab" singer was influenced by her peers who were "all doing it" at the age of 17.
"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," he said.
Alex and their father Mitch Winehouse have since set up the Amy Winehouse Foundation in Amy's memory, which works to prevent young people from misusing drugs and alcohol. In addition, they've put together an exhibition of family photographs and objects at the Jewish Museum in London for an exhibit that opens next month. Alex told the Observer that the aim of the exhibit is to show Amy "as a normal person and us as a normal family" influenced by their Jewish identity.
