Amy Winehouse. Photo credit: nuflicks/frank hommel via Flickr
When Amy Winehouse debuted on The Sunday Times Rich List in 2008, she was worth an apparent £10 million. Now, after the star’s death in July, that figure stands closer to £2 million according to press reports. Recently released accounts reveal that two of Winehouse’s companies, Cherry Westfield and CW Touring, have lost a combined £154,000 since 2009. As this is the only hard data available – and it explains only a fraction of the lost sum – tabloid journalists have begun to tentatively speculate on the holes in Winehouse’s pockets. Where did all the money go?
- Excessive lifestyle. A source quoted in The Daily Star said “she spent thousands on drink, drugs, and hangers-on.” The Daily Mail’s Marcus Barnes also nodded towards “her excessive lifestyle,” and reminded readers that the singer was “very generous with her friends and associates.” The number of Winehouse’s associates even extended to the coconut seller she met on a beach in St. Lucia, and whose £4,000 hernia operation she subsequently paid for.
- Taken advantage of? An altogether less salubrious drain on her resources is suggested by a source quoted in The Sun. Her ex, Blake Fielder-Civil, would apparently charge her charge her “£150 just to kiss him and get near him. They’d be sitting, having a couple of drinks and she’d be trying to snuggle up to him. She’d say, ‘Give me a kiss, sailor.’ He’d go, ‘F*** off, Give me some money then.’ ” A whopping 500,000 kisses, if this story were true, would account for the remarkable drop in Winehouse’s funds. Fielder-Civil is currently serving 32 months for burglary and a firearms offence.
- As much as £13 million frittered? Jasmine Coleman at The Daily Express said “it is impossible to guess how much cash the Rehab singer took out of her companies to fund her partying lifestyle” but still went on speculate that, over the years, she might gave frittered away £13 million.
