Amy Winehouse's aunt has called on the press to leave the troubled singer alone.
The family member, referring to herself only as Sue, rang in to the BBC Five Live radio station during a debate on drug use in which Winehouse was used as an example.
"Please let her finish her rehabilitation - let her try to get off the stuff and then we'll have the Amy we all want," Sue said on the Phil Williams's show.
"We're just trying to carry on our lives, if possible."
The aunt expressed her anger at the way the press continually use the 24-year-old singer as an example in discussions regarding drug use.
"You keep bring up that she's a teenage icon and what example is she setting. She's setting no example. She didn't want to be an example - all she wants to be is a singer and a songwriter.
"There are thousands of families going through the same tragic situation as us all over England and they're allowed to get on it quietly - and this is all we ask for Amy.
"Amy has the press knocking on her door at two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning and some of the photos of Amy at her worst is when she's had no sleep and gone downstairs to say 'leave me alone, shut up, I want to go to sleep'," she added.
Police confirmed yesterday that Winehouse would not face charges over video footage allegedly showing the singer using a crack cocaine pipe.
The 24-year-old has had a number of brushes with the law recently and Sue claimed: "Sometimes in our heart of hearts - and this is going to sound ever so bad - we wish she would be incarcerated and maybe that would help get her off the drugs."
15/05/2008 17:00:42
See Also
