Amy Winehouse's Mother Questions the Singer's Outspoken Chops: Could Tourette Syndrome Be to Blame?

The soulful songbird's mother questions whether her talented and troubled daughter might have suffered from Tourette Syndrome

By Talia Weisner Jan 06, 2016 6:32 PMTags
Amy Winehouse, Jewish MuseumCourtesy of the Winehouse Family and The Jewish Museum

Amy Winehouse was never one for subtlety. Along with her notorious struggle with drug and alcohol addiction, her mother is speaking out in her new memoir, Loving Amy: A Mother's Story, on the spunky and much-beloved singer's long-suffered struggle with her outspoken chops.

"She could well have been almost Tourette's, where she would just shout things out," Amy's mother, Janis Winehouse, reveals to People. "We just do not know."

Whether or not Amy in fact suffered from the neurological syndrome, which often causes those with the disease to experience uncontrollable vocal tics, the singer did endure a notoriously troubled past—one which resulted in tragedy back in 2011 when she passed away from alcohol poisoning.

Amy was a "gifted" child, her mother writes in the memoir, to be released in hardcover on Jan. 12. A gifted talent indeed, fans got to catch a glimpse of the singer's raspy and stunningly-powerful chops at the age of 14 in last years biopic plainly entitled, Amy.

As for the singer's potential battle with Tourette Syndrome? That's a theory which will remain unconfirmed. A fact of which we can be certain, however, is the talented vocalist's long-lived struggle with addiction, bulimia, and depression, among a host of other wearying challenges. 

"I honestly think 50 things killed her," Amy director Asif Kapadia told E!'s Marc Malkin in June 2015. "It's no simple thing. It's everything. It's her situation at home...it's no self-esteem…not feeling enough love to love herself and to care about herself. Everything."

"And then on top of that, you get too much money, too much success," he went on. "Nobody says no...Everything created a situation of this mess around her. Nobody stopped it. It went on and on and on. It got out of control. And when they did try to stop it, it was too late."