Why is Amy Winehouse's father Mitch seen as a controversial figure?

Amy Winehouse's life is one that has fascinated the public for decades, even before her death 2011 from alcohol poisoning at the age of 27.

Her personal relationships, including with ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, were widely scrutinised in the media both during her lifetime and after her untimely death. But another figure from her life who has been the subject of much controversy is her father Mitch.

In Sam Taylor-Johnson's film Back to Black Mitch is portrayed by Eddie Marsan, and the role is one of a father who tried to support his daughter in any way he could. While he's shown relatively favourably in the film, he is seen as a controversial figure for many.

Why has Mitch Winehouse become a controversial figure you might ask? Well it's a complex question, and one that was examined closely in the 2015 documentary film Amy. There were suggestions in this documentary that Winehouse's father was exploitative, with some of the singer's fans believing he used her stardom to gain fame of his own and has continued to user her name for personal gain.

For example, he released his own album in 2010 and did an interview about it with the New York Times that was published just days before his daughter's death in 2011. In it he was asked about how he was trying to step out of his daughter's shadow, and said: "What I’ve said is, and I’m being glib, it was my name first. I was here before Amy. But I know that I only got the chance to make the album because I was Amy’s dad.

Read more: Back to Black review: Amy Winehouse biopic is touching if serviceable

"But the moment I stepped into the studio, Tony Hiller would have said to me, 'You know what, you can’t do this.' No one was going to let me waste money just to do some karaokes. I can sing. And I can assure you with all the people around me who love me and respect me, they wouldn’t let me do it if they thought I was going to screw it up."

Speaking with the BBC in 2012, Mitch Winehouse admitted to having a breakdown after his daughter's death, sharing that he was "in shock" first four or five months after. He said: "I had to see a psychiatrist and the psychiatrist said I was suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder. I was having flashbacks. This is the stuff our soldiers are facing every day.

"I've managed to dispel those images and now I remember Amy as she always was, even during the dark times."

When asked about the possibility of having his daughter be made into a hologram to be taken on tour, which has since been done with the likes of Abba and Elvis, he said it was unlikely but that he wouldn't "rule anything out" as he said it was important to raise money for the Amy Winehouse Foundation.

He added: "But everything we do has to be done tastefully and we certainly don't want to rip anybody off, that's for sure. Everything we do we want to add to Amy's legacy not detract from it."

It is moments like this that have cemented some fans' views on him. But he has also become a controversial figure because at one point in Winehouse's life he said she didn't need to go to rehab — a moment he has spoken about in the past, and is immortalised in her song Rehab which features the lyrics "if my daddy thinks I'm fine".

That the singer struggled with substance abuse for several years, and ultimately died as a result of her addiction, is a factor in why her father is one of the figures blamed for her death. He has refuted the claim that he didn't want her to go to rehab though, saying that the aforementioned remark was only a reflection of one point in her life and he took her to a facility several times to get sober.

Speaking to the Jewish Chronicle in 2020, he said: "How many times do I have to say I sent her there? Not just once, six or seven times. She wouldn’t stay. Amy wasn’t a child and it never occurs to people I’m a grieving father."

He also refuted the claim that anyone "exploited" his daughter, saying that neither he nor her record label did and that she "wiped the floor with them and didn’t care about turning up five hours late for a meeting with Universal Music’s chairman, Lucian Grainge."

Mitch Winehouse has hit out against the 2015 documentary Amy in the past, telling The Guardian at the time: "I told them that they were a disgrace. I said: ‘You should be ashamed of yourselves. You had the opportunity to make a wonderful film and you’ve made this.'"

He did address some remarks he made in the past, including doing interviews whilst his daughter was at the height of her alcohol and drug addiction and was being scrutinised in the press, and said: "I look back at that time now and I really do regret some of the things I did, but I did it with the right motives. You’re trying to protect your daughter, and half the time you’re making the situation worse."

"We made many mistakes, but not loving our daughter was not one of them," he added.

Black to Black premieres in cinemas on Friday, 12 April.

Watch: How Back To Black attempts to reclaim Amy Winehouse's legacy