Winehouse in "Retreat" - They couldn't make her go to rehab, but a retreat is a different story.

Winehouse in "Retreat"

by Gina Serpe

They couldn't make her go to rehab, but a retreat is a different story.

A day after Amy Winehouse announced she would be canceling all planned performances for the month of August in order to address some long-gestating "health issues," her husband announced the duo would be returning to the rehabilitation center they were spotted at earlier this week to seek treatment.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," the 23-year-old "Rehab" singer told BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat Thursday night. "I've put on half a stone [seven pounds], and I'm fine."

When asked by the reporter (who nabbed the interview with the duo after a mini pub crawl near their London home) whether the flurry of tabloid reports alleging her hospitalization for "severe exhaustion" last week was actually the result of an overdose or if she was, as her mother-in-law was quoted as saying in the Mirror this week, addicted to heroin and cocaine, were true, Winehouse denied it.

"I wouldn't say so, no," the singer said.

Her husband of three months, 23-year-old Blake Fielder-Civil, said the couple right now was focused on recovery, but also downplayed media reports about the extent of Winehouse's so-called health issues.

"I think 99 percent of it's not true," he said. "I wouldn't believe it...There's a few problems there, but certainly not the magnitude that my mom was falsely quoted as saying.

"Everyone's just a bit tense, a bit worried about everything, but the main thing is me and Amy are getting better."

For the couple, the first step to healthy living will start back at the Causeway rehabilitation center on the Essex coast. The duo was spotted helicoptering out of the facility on Wednesday, a day after Britain's New Musical Express reported they had checked in.

For his part, Fielder-Civil said their abrupt exit should be viewed not as a failure to commit to a healthy lifestyle but rather as the result of a much more benign issue.

"It's a private matter. It's been a difficult time for me and Amy, we're going back to the place tonight," he told the BBC. "We only came back to get a guitar, but of course in the paper that's interpreted as me and Amy are both so weak that we left after three days. It's just the inevitable way that papers want to put you down when you're trying to do something positive.

"Don't worry," he continued. "She's being looked after. She's going back to this retreat. She's determined to get well. It's not as bad as everyone thinks, but she's fine. She's loved and looked after."

Eyebrows were first raised last week when the "You Know I'm No Good" singer was briefly hospitalized at University College London hospital after suffering what her publicist said was "severe exhaustion." The singer was ordered to rest by a doctor and canceled a handful of European festival gigs.

Then on Thursday came another round of cancellations. Publicist Tracey Miller said Winehouse was calling off all gigs for the month of August and adamantly denied that either drugs or alcohol were to blame or that Winehouse had entered a rehab facility, despite photographs of the singer and her husband at the Essex center.

Miller instead cited unspecified "health issues" as the reason for the scuttled tour dates.

For her part, Winehouse has made no bones about her less than exemplary living, referring to herself in interviews as a "violent drunk" who has battled with both anorexia and bulimia in recent years. At a photo shoot for Spin magazine earlier this year, Winehouse again solicited her share of unflattering headlines when she reportedly carved her husband's name into her arm with a piece of glass.

"I'm not in this to be a f--king role model," she told the magazine. "I don't care about any of this, and I don't have much of an opinion of myself. I don't think people care about me."

They certainly care about her music.

Back to Black, Winehouse's sophomore album, has been a massive success, selling more than 1 million copies in both the U.S. and the U.K., becoming a fixture on the album charts on both sides of the pond and spawning the summer anthem "Rehab."

There's no word on whether Winehouse will reschedule her missed August gigs, though she is reportedly still on board to kick off a monthlong U.S. tour in New York Sept. 12. Prior to that, she's due to perform at the MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas on Sept. 9. She's up for three awards at the show.