Whitney Houston ‘abused as child’

A NEW documentary about the life of Whitney Houston claims that the tragic singer was sexually abused as a child by her cousin, soul musician Dee Dee Warwick.

The revelation in “Whitney,” which was made with the co-operation of the singer’s family, comes late in the film by Oscar-winning Scottish director Kevin Macdonald. The documentary was premiered yesterday at the Cannes film festival.

Houston’s assistant, Mary Jones, who Whitney called “Aunt Mary,” discovered her face down in a Beverly Hills bath the night she died, told the filmmakers that she was abused as a child and was later unable to come to terms with her sexuality.

It may help to shine a new light on the singer’s descent into drug addiction and early death at 48 in 2012.

Houston’s destructive relationship with the rapper Bobby Brown is also tackled in the documentary, by the maker of “One Day in September” about Black September hostage taking at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Brown tells the film that drugs had nothing to do with Houston’s death, although the coroner said it was a contributing factor.

Dee Dee Warwick was the younger sister of the soul legend Dionne Warwick. She also struggled with drugs and died aged 63 in 2008.

Houston’s soaring gospel voice made her one of the biggest pop stars of the 1990s.