St Lucian youngster Amy Winehouse hoped to adopt admits ‘she could have saved her’

Amy Winehouse ‘could have saved’ if she had succeeded in adopting St Lucian Dannika Augustin, the island native has revealed.

The year before her death in 2011, the singer spent a lot of her time on the island of St Lucia and had begun devising plans to adopt Dannika Augustin, now 20. 

But sadly, despite hiring lawyers to see out the adoption, Amy died days after from alcohol poisoning, and Dannika has now spoken about her relationship with the singer ahead of a new BBC documentary.

Speaking to The Mirror, Dannika said: ‘I know I had a big impact on Amy’s life because when we were together, she was always clean and never sad.  

‘She was never drunk or taking drugs because she wanted to be responsible and she was such a kind-hearted person.

‘I am convinced that if I had moved to London, I would have been able to save her.’

After the breakdown of her marriage with Blake Fielder in 2008, Amy regularly spent long periods of time on the island in a lavish luxury villa in Cotton Bay Resort. 

She eventually met Dannika in 2010 at the beach bar which her grandmother, Marjorie Lambert, ran. 

When the Back to Black singer met Dannika she was living alone with her single mother and Amy had hoped to give the youngster a better life back in the UK. 

Their last meeting was during Amy’s November 2010 getaway to St Lucia before her death in July the following year. 

Dannika’s words come as BBC Two is set to air a special documentary, Reclaiming Amy, which sees Amy’s parents – Mitch and Janis – talking about the women behind her name to mark ten years since her death. 

In the moving documentary, which airs on Friday, Amy’s loved ones touched upon their struggles to help the sing before she died of alcohol poisoning at her Camden home on July 23 2011 aged just 27. 

Amy’s father Mitch explained, despite them all staging several interventions to help her, ‘you couldn’t tell her what to do’.

During the special programme, Mitch, reported by The Mirror, said: ‘You couldn’t tell her to do or not do something. If she was going to do it, she’d do it. Nobody controlled Amy. She was the governor.’

Amy’s friend and stylist Naomi Parry echoed Mitch’s sentiments: ‘She looked like you could put her over your shoulder and take her somewhere but it would be like picking up a feral cat. It’s going to scratch your eyes out.’

In the documentary tribute to the late singer, Amy’s mother also explained she was not able to physically deal with her daughter’s addictions because she was suffering with multiple sclerosis. 

Earlier this week Amy’s mother shared the heartbreaking final words to her daughter while her step-dad choked back tears over her passing as they discussed the late singer on Thursday’s Lorraine. 

Janis and her husband Richard Collins spoke with Lorraine Kelly in the studio about the upcoming documentary. 

Speaking with Lorraine in an exclusive interview, the grieving pair recalled their memories of Amy and told how they had tried to help her through her addictions, but insisted that ‘Amy did what Amy wanted to do’.

During the chat, Janis, 66, sadly remembered the last words she said to her daughter before her tragic death.

She said: ‘I remember exactly. I said to her, ‘Amy I love you’and she said, ‘I love you too mummy.’

‘But that’s how we were and I could express my love to her, always. She was very protective of me.’

Meanwhile, things took a very emotional turn as Richard recounted the agonising moment he was forced to tell his wife that her daughter had died.

He explained: ‘It was the worst day of my life. I got the phone call to say that Amy had gone. It was actually her cousin, Martin that phoned.

‘I said, ‘Don’t be silly, we were with her yesterday.’ And he said, ‘No, I’m being absolutely serious.’

‘And then I had to tell Janis. I said, ‘Janis, I don’t know what to say, she’s gone.’ She looked at me and she thought I was talking about my mum, because my mum died a month after Amy – my mum was seriously ill.’

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Choking back tears at the memory, he went on: ‘She [Janis] said, ‘It’s just your mum’ and I said, ‘No, no. Your baby, she’s really gone.’ And Jan just stood there.’

Janis then went on to tell of her shock at the heart-breaking news, telling Lorraine: ‘It took time for me, disbelief.’

Meanwhile, Janis and Richard opened up about trying to help Amy battle her demons, but there was only so much they could do as Janis suffers with Multiple sclerosis (MS).

Janis explained: ‘I was limited by what I could do. I live with it. I’m very good, I’ve got it… and? I’m very nonplussed about it.’

Richard then shared: ‘She [Amy] did try, it’s a misrepresentation. The family bent over backwards, but what people seem to forget is that she was a married woman, she was 27, she was living independently, she was wealthy. 

‘People tried to help her, from her management to Mitch to Janis, the family.’

He added: ‘Amy did what Amy wanted to do and that was the bottom line of it. People think she was a very weak character, but she wasn’t. Far from it. She was very, very strong.’

Going on to discussed the foundation set up in the Rehab singer’s memory, Richard said: ‘That’s very, very important to the family. Mitch, his wife Jane – who’s our CEO – work so hard. Unfortunately, because of Janis’ condition we can’t be as involved in it as we’d like…

‘I think we’ve reached out on our drug resilience programme to over 200,000 children around the country with reformed addicts going into schools rather than the policeman or the local teacher. [They say] ‘This is what happened to me.’ The intervention, it’s wonderful.’

While Janis added: ‘It’s done so much good for people. And that’s what it’s about.’

Elsewhere, unseen snaps of Amy as a child and with her mother Janis have been revealed ahead of the upcoming documentary Reclaiming Amy about her life.

The late singer looked sweet in the family picture as she sat in a garden chair with huge sunglasses on while in another polaroid image a fresh-face Amy cuddled up to her mum as they both posed for the camera.

The new intimate snaps also feature several when she was just a teenager, as she poses at parties and on family holidays. 

In the film, the star’s mother Janis will tell the story of one of the UK’s greatest musical icons through new parts of her life that the public have never heard about.

Janis said: ‘I don’t feel the world knew the true Amy, the one that I brought up, and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to offer an understanding of her roots and a deeper insight into the real Amy.’

She says in the documentary: ‘You think you know my daughter. The drugs, the drink, the addiction, the destructive relationships. But there was so much more.’

Amy’s parents Janis and Mitch set up the Amy Winehouse Foundation following her death.

They created the charity in honour of the late singer on what would have been her 28th birthday on the 14 September 2011.

Amy soared to fame upon the release of Frank in 2003, as she gained both critical and commercial success with the debut as her jazz-inspired vocals won fans all over before her second album Back To Black’s introduction three years later.

In a heartbreaking turn of fate, the London-born icon’s dazzling career was plighted by her demons after she fell into the clutches of drink and drug addiction.  

As she ascended higher on the fame ladder she discovered her demons – in drink, drugs and also eating disorders, which her brother Alex insists contributed to her death. 

In 2011, an inquest gave a verdict of misadventure after finding that she had 416mg of alcohol per decilitre in her blood. A second inquest in 2013  confirmed that she died of accidental alcohol poisoning.

Reclaiming Amy airs on BBC Two at 9pm on Friday 23rd July.

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