Blake Fielder-Civil: 'Amy Winehouse died in my arms'

Amy Winehouse's ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil has described how he feared his wife was dying in his arms after a three-day drug binge.

Fielder-Civil, who was divorced from Winehouse on grounds of her adultery on July 16, told The Sun newspaper how Winehouse went into a seizure and briefly stopped breathing at a party at her home in Camden, north London.

He recalled: "She started having a fit on the bed. She slid down on to the floor before I could stop her. She started quivering again and it suddenly grew into what seemed like a full-blown epileptic fit.

"I was panicking. I didn't know know how to help her. I was out of it on drugs as well - and was sobbing and crying out, 'Amy!'"

Fielder-Civil described how he put the singer, who was cleared of assaulting a fan last Friday (July 24), into the recovery position and pulled her tongue out of her mouth to stop her biting it.

He added: "I knelt over her as she kept on fitting. But then suddenly she just passed out and stopped breathing. It was the most frightening thing I had ever seen. I felt sure I was watching her die right in front of me. I didn't know what to do or how to save her. I held her to me - and I thought she was dying in my arms. But somehow I managed to open her mouth and breathe air down her throat.

"At first nothing happened. So I did it again. I was feeling for her pulse because I thought her heart might have stopped.

"Then she spluttered - and I saw her chest rise. I was still sobbing and panicking but I just felt this huge relief that she was alive."

Fielder-Civil continued by describing how Winehouse, slipping in and out of consciousness, was unable to recognise him and called out for more drugs, before a friend called a taxi to take her to hospital, where she was placed on a drip.

Reflecting on Winehouse's troubled life since the success of her second album 'Back To Black' whose songs described a previous split with Fielder-Civil, her ex-husband said: "It's just a shame because she's very funny, very clever and she's very loving. I can think of all these good points about her.

"But she just put everything going for her - all that talent and personality - and hid them behind drink and drugs."