WHITNEY’S PAIN
A new film explores the dark days of Whitney Houston’s life.
Six years after the tumultuous life of Whitney Houston ended in tragedy, her family is shedding new light on the superstar’s troubles—and the trauma that may have haunted her since childhood. In Whitney, a documentary created with the support of Houston’s relatives that premiered in Cannes on May 16, her brother and a longtime assistant divulge what they say is the family’s darkest secret: that as a child, Houston was allegedly sexually abused by her older cousin Dee Dee Warwick. Houston “used to say, ‘I wonder if I did something to make her think I wanted her,’ ” recalls assistant Mary Jones in an interview with the film’s director, Kevin Macdonald, discussing Houston’s ongoing turmoil over the alleged abuse. Jones recalls she told Houston not to think that way, saying, “Stop. A predator is a predator.”
Warwick, a singer and the sister of star Dionne Warwick, died in 2008. According to the film, she often babysat Houston and her brothers Michael and Gary around their Newark, New Jersey, hometown, while their mother, Cissy, travelled as a back-up singer. In those times “[there were] four, five different families who took care of us,” recalls Gary, who claims in the documentary that he too was molested by Warwick. Houston once told Jones, “Mommy don’t know the things we went through.”
In adulthood, the “I Will Always Love You” icon traversed the heights of fame and the depths of despair. Her family and friends delve into her headline-fuelling marriage to Bobby Brown, her long-rumoured bisexuality (several documentary interviewees imply she was romantically involved with close friend Robyn Crawford), her struggles with motherhood and her long battle with cocaine addiction. Houston’s brothers admit in the film they procured drugs for their sister and themselves as they toured the world together. On Feb. 11, 2012, just before the Grammys, Jones says Houston told her, “I need to get my life together” and talked about wanting to “get into heaven.” Later that day, the 48-year-old star was found drowned in her hotel room bathtub with cocaine in her system. Through all of her ups and downs, Jones says of the star, “I think she was trying to find herself.”
Janine Rubenstein
“Mommy don’t know the things we went through” —Mary Jones says Houston told her