Whitney Houston had a squeaky-clean image for the first half of her career, but in the
later years of her life, her troubles became more apparent.
While many of her demons have been well-documented, the details that have come out since the late
singer's passing paint an even darker picture.
Here are some of the sad things we've learned about Whitney Houston after her death.
Insiders claim Houston was a drug user long before she met Bobby Brown, and that her handlers
and record label deliberately peddled the narrative that he corrupted the so-called
"good girl" and got her involved in dangerous habits.
The director of the 2017 documentary Whitney: Can I Be Me called that a "fairy tale," telling
the New York Post,
"The idea that Whitney was a great girl until Bobby came along is simply not true.
Whitney took drugs and smoked weed a long time before she could even spell 'Bobby Brown.'"
Houston's longtime stylist, Ellin LaVar, says in the documentary,
"[Whitney and her two brothers] did drugs.
It was the thing you do.
You go out, you party, you drink, you do a little drugs.
Everybody did it.
And her brothers gave it to her.
It was just something you do to have fun."
Houston's older brother, Michael Houston, confessed to Oprah Winfrey that he introduced
the singer to cocaine, not knowing the damage it could do.
He admitted it's a "demon" he's forced to live with every day.
"In the entertainment industry it was just like, available.
It wasn't like a bad word like it is now.
We didn't know."
Sources told People that Houston struggled with the pressures of fame and being forced
into a role that didn't feel genuine.
An insider close to the singer's family said,
"There were a lot of expectations in terms of who she was and who people thought she
was.
I think not being able to be herself 100 percent was a hell of a burden for her to have to
carry.
Someone may look good on the outside, sturdy and strong ... [but] on the inside, you have
someone who had insecurities and family issues and emotional personal issues and struggles."
The insider added that once Houston signed with legendary producer Clive Davis,
"[She] had to do what he said, wear what he said to, sing what he wanted her to sing and
act like a goody two shoes when she was really a down and dirty girl from Jersey.
Whitney definitely resented that."
A music industry source noted,
"Clive made her into a mainstream pop star and allowed all of her wildest dreams to come
true, but being this massive pop star came at a price.
She had to act a certain way in front of the cameras for the label.
That wasn't the real Whitney."
A family friend told People that Houston used drugs as a form of rebellion against her clean-cut
image and the people who tried to control it, saying,
"[Drugs became] her rebellion against it all.
There has to be some outlet.
For her, it became drugs."
A music industry insider concurred that Houston, quote, "did drugs to escape her pain."
Her drug use eventually transitioned from recreational dabbling to addiction.
A family source told the magazine,
"Things got worse and worse.
Suddenly, when she was using, she had no idea who she was or who you were and she became
angry and lashed out.
We'd take turns checking on her in Atlanta when things were bad."
The insider claimed that enablers let Whitney do whatever she wanted to do for fear of getting
fired.
According to the 2016 book Whitney & Bobbi Kristina: The Deadly Price of Fame, Houston
was targeted by a Chicago lawyer who tried to extort her back in 1992.
On the eve of The Bodyguard film debut, the attorney allegedly demanded $250,000 from
the songbird or he'd go public with "intimate details" about her love life.
Whitney's father reportedly settled it immediately, though it wasn't confirmed how much money
was paid.
What kind of dirt was the lawyer threatening to dish?
It could have had something to do with rumors about Whitney being in a romantic relationship
with her longtime assistant and close friend Robyn Crawford.
Whitney and her mother, Cissy Houston, both denied the claims, but even Bobby Brown alleged
in his book Every Little Step that Whitney was attracted to men and women.
In Whitney: Can I Be Me, Whitney's former bodyguard, David Roberts, says,
"Bobby Brown and Robyn Crawford were like fire and ice.
They hated each other.
They'd battle for her affections."
"He wanted Whitney to remove Robyn from their relationship and Whitney didn't want to do
it."
Ellen LaVar also says in the film,
"I think she was bisexual.
[...] Robyn provided a safe place for her."
One of Houston's former bodyguards, Kevin Ammons, claims her father didn't approve of
her alleged relationship with Robyn Crawford.
According to Whitney & Bobbi Kristina: The Deadly Price of Fame, John Houston offered
Ammons $6,000 to, quote, "put the fear of God" in Robyn.
Ammons says he refused, and John then allegedly warned the bodyguards to keep a close watch
on her.
Whitney's mother, Cissy, told Oprah Winfrey she would "absolutely" be unhappy if Whitney
had been in a relationship with a woman.
"It would have bothered you?"
"Mmhmm."
"You would not have liked that?"
"Not at all."
Cissy added that she didn't really like Robyn, calling her "sometimes disrespectful," but
recognized that the two were very close friends.
In 1999, Robyn reportedly left the singer's inner circle for good.
In Whitney: Can I Be Me, LaVar called Robyn's exit "the beginning of [Whitney's] downfall."
Brown also claimed that the family's scorn and Crawford's departure crushed Whitney,
telling Us Weekly,
"I really feel that if Robyn was accepted into Whitney's life, Whitney would still be
alive today.
She didn't have close friends with her anymore."
Though in subsequent interviews Brown has adamantly denied ever striking Houston, he
admitted in his book that he did, at one time, hit her because she was allegedly doing drugs
while he was trying to get clean.
He wrote,
"I did [strike Whitney].
Me at the time, trying to maintain a sobriety and the person that's in your relationship
is not going along with it - it was rough."
The former New Edition singer also accuses Whitney in his book of having more than one
affair during their relationship, and he uses those allegations to justify his own infidelity.
He explained,
"In fact, she cheated before I did.
She slept with quite a few of the producers and artists that she worked with or associated
with [over] the years.
I won't drop any names here because they're still around and a few view me as a friend.
When I found out about the first one, I was blown away.
I thought, 'Okay, okay, you gonna play me like that?
I'm not that type of dude, but if you can do it, I can do it too.'"
Houston and Brown were on relatively equal footing in their careers when they met in
1989 at the Soul Train Awards, but she eclipsed him in an epic manner with the success of
1992's The Bodyguard and its smash song, "I Will Always Love You."
Her longtime real-life bodyguard, David Roberts, believes Brown resented her for it, leading
to the demise of their marriage.
Roberts told The Guardian,
"[Brown] was just not good at looking after her.
He was always either in conflict or creating conflict.
[...] [He] lost his own identity, which I suspect he resented deeply, especially as
his own talents were inferior to Miss Houston's."
Roberts claims Brown was physically and verbally abusive to Whitney, no matter how much she
tried to placate his fragile ego.
He added,
"[Brown] was jealous of her success, so he rubbed her face in his cheating, but she forgave
him every possible indiscretion.
I just couldn't understand it.
And it ate away at her."
Roberts said he believes Whitney would still be alive today if she hadn't gotten involved
with Brown.
He said of the "My Prerogative" singer,
"Unfortunately, Mr. Brown has a lot of inadequacies he has to come to terms with, and I'm not
sure he has, even to this day."
Brown previously confessed that Houston's struggle with drug abuse was severe, but sources
claim in the documentary Whitney that it was even worse than previously reported.
Houston's brother, Michael, who worked as her tour manager, claimed they'd frequently
use drugs together.
In the film, Lavar and Roberts claimed they were terrified for her life.
Lavar says that she begged Houston to get clean for years, and Roberts said that he
alerted Houston's team to her rampant drug use in 1999 after allegedly witnessing her
overdose on her My Love Is Your Love tour.
Instead of getting help for Houston, Roberts claims, the team fired him.
Houston reportedly tried to get help for her drug addiction but couldn't stay clean.
Her former drug counselor claims in the film that the singer just wanted to be a normal,
sober mother to her daughter and didn't care about having expensive things.
Despite Houston's well-documented drug abuse and autopsy results showing drugs in her system,
Brown still insisted drugs were not to blame for her tragic death.
He told Rolling Stone in February 2018 that she died from, quote, "just being broken-hearted."
Though the coroner's report cited cocaine, Benadryl, Xanax, and marijuana, Brown said,
"She was really working hard on herself to try to be a sober person and... she was a
great woman."
Brown wouldn't elaborate on what he believed contributed to Houston's allegedly broken
heart or why he refused to believe she was still using drugs at the time of her passing.
Whitney director Kevin Macdonald told Deadline,
"I think Bobby just isn't really ready to be honest.
[...] There's the perfect example of somebody who is, I think, [feeling] just very guilty.
[...] it feels like there's a lot of guilt, and a kind of posturing, and a self-protectiveness
that's still going on there.
And he felt, to me, just unwilling - or unable - to really be honest about himself, let alone
to be honest about Whitney."
In November 2019, Robyn Crawford released her memoir A Song For You: My Life With Whitney
Houston, in which she detailed their relationship for the first time.
Crawford wrote that they first met when they both worked as counselors at a summer camp
when Crawford was 19 and Houston was about to turn 17.
Crawford said their relationship was a physical and romantic one, but not for long.
Houston ended their sexual relationship by gifting Crawford a Bible, and explaining that
being romantic would, quote, "make [their] journey even more difficult."
Crawford also said that Houston's mother disapproved of the relationship and said it was "unnatural"
for women to be as close as Crawford and Whitney were.
Crawford wrote,
"We never talked about labels, like lesbian or gay.
We just lived our lives and I hoped it could go on that way forever."
The pair remained close until Whitney's tragic drowning death at 48 years old in 2012.
Crawford says of their enduring bond,
"Whitney knows I loved her and I know she loved me.
We really meant everything to each other.
We vowed to stand by each other."
Crawford alleged in her book that before Houston walked down the aisle with Brown, the "How
Will I Know" singer was in hot pursuit of none other than Eddie Murphy.
Murphy couldn't be tied down, though - even for just one date.
Crawford wrote,
"One day when Eddie was supposed to come for dinner, I caught a glimpse of Whitney.
She was wearing a black dress and low-heeled slingbacks.
For a moment, I thought 'Boy, I wish she was doing that for me.'"
But Murphy didn't show up for the date, leaving Houston heartbroken; Crawford says Houston
"lost herself" trying to land the Coming To America actor and comedian.
It wasn't until the day Houston was set to marry Brown that Murphy came around, with
Crawford claiming Murphy called Houston to tell her she was making a mistake.
She didn't listen.
"She said, 'Eddie.
He must be out of his mind.
Matter of fact he is out of his mind.'"
Murphy had already had his chance, and by then, she'd moved on and was head over heels
for Brown.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, please call the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Administration's 24/7 National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
That's 1-800-662-4357