(faucet water running)
(mysterious music)
(door knocking)
- Ms. Houston, are you there?
(door knocking)
Are you okay?
I'm gonna open the door now to check on you Ms. Houston.
Oh my God.
What's going on here?
Ms. Houston?
- [Narrator] On February 11th, 2012,
a multiplatinum singer and a six-time Grammy winner
Whitney Houston died at the age of 48.
Her body was discovered in a bathtub
in room 434 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
In this episode, we're gonna show you
how and why Whitney Houston really died.
(upbeat music)
Whitney Houston's remarkable career
spanned almost three decades.
Her albums are among the all-time bestsellers.
She's the only music artist who have seven
consecutive number one singles on Billboard Hot 100.
That's more than what Michael Jackson had.
So how did such a talented diva end up drowning
in a bathtub at some random LA hotel?
Well, here's where the story begins.
We'll start with a bit of a timeline.
In the 1970s and early eighties,
Whitney Houston was growing up in Newark, New Jersey.
She was outgoing, loud, and provocative.
A true rebel without a cause,
a rebel with some serious talent waiting to get discovered.
In 1983 when Whitney was 20 years old,
she secured her first record deal with producer Clive Davis
and Arista Records, a major record label.
And then in 1985 and 1987,
Houston dropped two mega albums that shaped the future
of soul, pop, and R&B.
The rest is history.
Sort of a Cinderella story, isn't it?
Clive Davis and Arista Records turned that girl
from Newark into a mainstream pop star
and allowed all of her dreams to come true.
Yeah, but we know that everything in life comes at a price.
Whitney became famous in an era when record labels
ruled the world of music.
They made her the dazzling pop princess,
but in return demanded that she acted a certain way,
wore certain things, said certain things.
She became their puppet in some sense.
The problem with Whitney Houston was that all
of that sparkling glitter wasn't the real Whitney.
That girl from Newark was concealed from the public eye
but never gone.
Pretty quickly Whitney found herself in her own prison,
living a double life behind the bars of her status and fame.
Eventually, the pressures to be someone else
led her to drugs.
And once she started that journey,
she never fully came back.
Surrounded by the entourage of the yes-people
who supported her every step of the way,
Whitney would get things she wanted or thought she wanted
quickly and without too many questions.
The rules were simple.
If you're not cooperating, you're fired.
This is very similar to what we've seen
in Michael Jackson's case, which we covered a while back.
Anyway, though Whitney entered rehab multiple times
things were not getting any better.
In fact, they were only getting worse.
(door knocking)
- Ms. Houston, I'm coming in to check on you, okay?
All right, I'm opening the door.
Oh my Lord.
- [Narrator] So what the hell happened that day
when Whitney Houston died?
What was she doing in a bathtub where her body was found?
Let's go back in time.
All right, it's Saturday, February 11th, 2012.
Top musicians and celebrities from all over the US
are getting ready for the 54th Annual Grammy Awards,
which is just the next day.
How are celebrities preparing themselves for the Grammys?
Exactly, they're partying.
Every club is booming.
It's going to be a sleepless weekend at the City of Angels.
Whitney Houston is staying at the Beverly Hilton Hotel
in the heart of Beverly Hills.
She's been here for a few days already,
visited a few parties,
and spent time with friends and colleagues.
Probably not a big deal, but Whitney looks a bit disheveled
and erratic in public.
Oh, if only someone raised the red flag high enough.
It was a big deal actually.
Now we know that Whitney wasn't doing well
and behind the closed door of her bathroom
she was going all in, doing drugs.
Why bathroom?
She liked the acoustics of the bathroom.
She appreciated the privacy, and she enjoyed
filling up the bathtub with water and relaxing.
Her entourage knew that when Whitney was in her bathroom,
she was twitching her nose and must not be disturbed.
So after twitching her nose,
Whitney fills up the bathtub with hot water.
It's time to relax.
It's gonna be a big day tomorrow,
and tonight she's going to another party,
and then suddenly lights go down.
Whitney's body is slowly submerging.
If she doesn't get help she'll die in minutes,
but no one's around to help her.
Ray Watson will eventually discover her body
but it's gonna be too late.
What happened?
Why did she pass out?
There are two equally plausible theories
as to why Whitney Houston passed out
while in the bathtub.
She could have passed out first due to the intoxication
from drugs or she could have had a heart attack
and then drowned.
The coroner's office reported that there was a bouquet
of substances in Whitney's system,
but she also suffered from a heart disease.
The investigation concluded that drug abuse
and heart problems were the two main factors
contributing to the untimely death of Whitney Houston.
On February 12th, the Grammy started
with a minute of silence as the audience paid their respect
to Whitney Houston.
The ultra bizarre thing about this whole story
is that three years later Whitney's only child,
her daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown
would die in similar circumstances.
This is something that we're still struggling to understand,
but let's save this one for another episode.
As for the story of Whitney Houston's death,
this is how it was.
(upbeat music)
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(bell tolls)