Boy George reveals why he feared Amy Winehouse‘s marriage was ‘tragedy waiting to happen’
Boy George says doing time with Amy Winehouse’s ex-husband made him realise their relationship was “a tragedy waiting to happen”.
The Culture Club singer, 62, was jailed in 2009 for four months for chaining a male escort to a radiator and beating him with a metal chain, at the same time Blake Fielder-Civil was serving a 27-month sentence for his part in an assault on a bar owner and a subsequent attempt to cover up the crime with a bribe.
George said in his new memoir ‘Karma: My Autobiography’ about how he and Blake would chat over coffee in his cell: “(Blake) played me (Amy’s) version of ‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?’
“Blake had that Sid Vicious vibe about him and I could see why Amy fell for him.... they were star-crossed lovers, a tragedy waiting to happen.”
Amy, who died aged 27 in 2011 from alcohol poisoning, married Blake in May 2007 and he was arrested in November that year before being jailed.
Judge David Radford said during Blake’s hearing he admitted to being high on cocaine and alcohol when he and his friend Michael Brown attacked pub manager James King outside the Macbeth pub in London during a barroom fight in June 2007. They then offered King $400,000 to keep quiet about it.
George – born George O’Dowd – was convicted of assault and false imprisonment in December 2008, for an incident that occurred in April the previous year.
Snaresbrook Crown Court, London, heard the singer had handcuffed Norwegian Audun to a wall fixture then beat him with a metal chain.
Audun had visited George to act as a model in a photography session, and George was sentenced to 15 months in jail on January 16, 2009.
He was initially sent to HM Prison Pentonville in London before being transferred to HM Prison Highpoint North, Suffolk.
George was released early after four months on May 11, 2009, but was subject to a strict curfew and required to wear an ankle monitor for the remainder of his sentence.
The singer also tells in his book how he received stacks of kind letters during his four months inside, including a “sweet” one from actor and writer Stephen Fry.