AMY Winehouse's family are convinced she was killed by QUITTING booze

AMY Winehouse's family are convinced she was killed by QUITTING booze, The Sun can reveal.
They believe the singer's decision to lay off alcohol completely for three weeks was a lethal "shock" for her tiny body.

Family sources say she died after ignoring her doctor's advice to cut down on her heavy drinking gradually.

And the tragic star's loved ones believe she was killed by a seizure because her tiny 4ft 11in frame could not cope with such a dramatic withdrawal.

A source close to Amy's family said: "Abstinence gave her body such a fright they thought it was eventually the cause of her death."

The Rehab singer, found dead on Saturday aged 27, fell off the wagon three days earlier, sinking gin and Red Bull mixes at the iTunes festival at the Roundhouse in Camden, North London.

But in his eulogy at her funeral on Tuesday, her cabbie father Mitch dismissed reports she went on a 72-hour bender.

Tribute

Revealing more details of the dad's tribute, the family source said: "He wanted everyone to know that he, her boyfriend and her manager believed it was actually the complete opposite.

"He said doctors had told Amy to gradually reduce her intake of alcohol and to avoid bingeing at all costs. Amy told him she couldn't do that. It was all or nothing and she gave up completely.

"Mitch said the shock of giving up, after everything she had been through over a bad few years, was just too much for her to take."

The cause of Amy's death will not be known for weeks, when toxicology test results come through. But last night Sun Doctor Carol Cooper said the booze-quitting theory was feasible.

She added: "The heaviest drinkers have a particularly severe form of alcohol withdrawal called delirium tremens, or DTs.

"They may fall into a stupor and sleep it off, or lapse into a coma - or have dangerous seizures."

Amy's mum Janis, 56, and film director boyfriend Reg Traviss, 35, saw her the day before she died - and were sure she had not been drinking. Her doctor gave her a clean bill of health the same day.