'I introduced Amy Winehouse to heroin,' admits Blake Fielder-Civil on Jeremy Kyle Show

Amy Winehouse's ex-husband has told of his regret at introducing her to hard drugs - but has claimed her addiction worsened when they were apart.

Blake Fielder-Civil said the two of them spent only four months in which they were taking drugs together as "addicts", due to his spells in jail.

He spoke in an emotional interview as a guest on ITV's Jeremy Kyle Show screened today in which he told of his tears and disbelief when prison staff told him Winehouse had died.

Fielder-Civil - who was married to the singer for two years - said of their heroin and crack use: "Out of maybe a six or seven-year relationship that me and Amy had on and off, there was drug use for about four months together."

He went on: "We used heroin together as addicts for like four months, then I went to jail.

"Then it got a lot worse while I was in jail and then when I came out of jail I was told that if I loved her I'd divorce her and set her free and I did."

The 34-year-old said he had used heroin "three or four times" before she was introduced to the drug.

He said they were in a room in an east London hotel and he had around a £10 batch.

"I was smoking it on foil and she said can I try some and I said... I might have put up a weak resistance - the fact is whatever I said she did end up having some," he said.

"I have to be really sort of conscious about what I say - I don't want to feel like I'm shirking responsibility.

"The fact is what I'm saying is of course I regret it, not just 'cos of the damage it's caused Amy and the loss of life, but the damage to her family but also to my family and also to me.

"You know we've all sort of gone through this addiction."

Winehouse died in July 2011 and a second inquest found last month that she died from accidental alcohol poisoning.

Fielder-Civil said he was told to end the marriage by Winehouse's family - specifically her father Mitch - as well as his own family.

"He said if you love her really you'll divorce her," he said.

"I spoke to Amy about it and we sort of agreed that it would get everyone off our backs at least you know and we'd probably re-marry."

He said he was told about her death by senior prison staff who brought him from his cell to break the news, but he could not come to terms with it and thought it must have been an internet hoax.

"So I made them show me about six or seven websites and each time they showed me the computer, I'm finding it harder and harder to say no, you know.

"And eventually I think they got the BBC up and they updated it so it was within the past minute and obviously at that point, I broke down and couldn't stop crying - and then I had to get put back in my cell."

Fielder-Civil, who has been in rehab three times to kick his drug problems and has two children from a relationship since he split from Winehouse, also told how he found texts from her on his release from prison.

"When I turned the phone on they were there but there was one talking about being a godmother to (his son) Jack," he told presenter Kyle.

"We had sort of spoken in the previous weeks about her visiting me and we had had maybe one emotional phone call when we'd said, you know, are we thinking about maybe getting back together at some point.

"She said that her doctor had said to her, you're never not going to be in love with Blake, and Amy had said 'yeah I know' and she asked me if she could come and visit me and I'd written a letter saying 'I don't know what we're going to do, of course I'm always going to love you'.

"And then we had a correspondence for about a week where we sort of ummed and aahed about it and then in the end it was sort of like what are we doing?"

Fielder-Civil claimed he had been free from drugs for over a year.

PA