Houston’s life is an open book
Late singer’s best friend shares details about their relationship in new memoir
One of Whitney Houston’s closest associates has broken her silence. Robyn Crawford, who befriended Houston long before she became a superstar, was Houston’s best friend, roommate, maid of honour and professional gatekeeper. But for many years, rumours dogged the two about the nature of their relationship, ones that Houston tried to tamp down in interviews throughout her career.
In the new book A Song for You: My Life with Whitney Houston, Crawford finally provides her version of events about her life with Houston, who died in 2010. Following are five revelations in the new book.
1 Houston’s romantic relationship with Crawford
Crawford and Houston — who was called “Nippy” by friends and family — met as teenagers in New Jersey during their summer jobs, working as camp counsellors. They became fast friends, and weeks later, shared their first kiss, Crawford writes. The two became physically intimate early in their relationship, and soon were inseparable.
“You could tell Whitney and I were tight,” Crawford writes. “It wasn’t all about our sleeping together. We could be naked. We could be bare and didn’t have to hide. We could trust each other with our secrets, our feelings, and who we were. We were friends. We were lovers. We were everything to each other. We weren’t falling in love. We just were. We had each other. We were one: That’s how it felt.”
As for their sexuality, Crawford writes that “we never talked labels, like lesbian or gay. We just lived our lives, and I hoped it could go on that way forever.”
Once Houston signed her record deal with Arista, she told Crawford they had to end the physical aspect of their relationship “because it would make our journey even more difficult.”
2 Claims that Houston’s cousin abused the singer
In the 2018 documentary Whitney, there were claims that Houston had been molested as a child by her cousin Dee Dee Warwick. In the film, Houston’s brother Gary also said he had been molested by the same relative as a child. Whitney was sanctioned by the singer’s estate. Pat Houston, who is married to Gary, is the sole executor of the estate. Following the release of the film, Dee Dee’s sister, singer Dionne Warwick, and Houston’s mother strongly refuted the claim.
In an interview on Today, Crawford said Houston never mentioned being molested by Dee Dee Warwick. “If there was any truth to that,” Crawford said, “I would know about it.”
3 Houston’s Super Bowl performance
Houston’s 1991 performance of the national anthem at the Super Bowl is regarded as one of the best versions ever performed, and its backstory has been covered in movies and articles over the years.
The Crawford memoir adds fresh details. Houston was supposed to perform wearing a sleeveless black cocktail dress. But Tampa was colder than they anticipated; Silvia Vejar, her personal assistant, suggested Houston wear the tracksuit she had packed.
“You won’t be out of place,” Vejar said. “It’s appropriate for the occasion, and no one is going to be looking at the orchestra anyway — all eyes are going to be on you.”
Houston, “for some reason I cannot fathom,” did her own hair and makeup, adding the headband and Nike Cortez sneakers, Crawford writes.
Afterward, rumours circulated that Houston was lip-synching. “That January evening I stood 12 yards from her. And she sang,” Crawford writes.
4 Houston’s celebrity relationships
Crawford writes that Houston became involved with Jermaine Jackson at the start of her career, but Jackson rebuffed her. Robert De Niro also pursued her, but Houston rejected his advances.
Houston, Crawford writes, was interested in comedian Eddie Murphy when she first met Bobby Brown, who became her husband. Murphy was hot and cold with Houston, giving her a diamond ring, but not letting her into his house when she went over as a birthday surprise. Crawford believed “that Eddie did a number on Nip’s selfworth,” writing that he frequently mocked her.
But Murphy called Houston on her wedding day as she was getting ready, Crawford writes. His message: She was making a big mistake, and shouldn’t marry Brown.
5 The singer’s Pretty Woman moment
Crawford writes that Houston’s assistant Vejar accompanied Houston to Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills one day. Houston, who at this point was a star, waited at the jewelry counter while two white male employees assisted another customer, who was also white.
When Vejar asked for assistance, she was told to wait, so she asked a man at a different counter. He happily obliged, and after a few minutes recognized who he was assisting.
“You’re Whitney Houston,” he said, and suddenly the two other employees wanted to help. But Vejar shot back, “Oh, now you want to come over?”
Crawford writes that “Whitney, who had been quiet up until now, asked the young man who had helped them, ‘Do you work on commission?’ He nodded and she said, ‘Go get your manager. I want to buy it from you.’”