Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Whitney’s lesbian lover revealed
Singer was 16 when summer romance with woman began
WHITNEY Houston had an intense lesbian relationship at summer camp when she was 16 years old, her former lover has revealed.
Robyn Crawford has broken her silence after decades of rumours about her relationship with Whitney to confirm they were lovers.
In her book, A Song for You: My Life with Whitney Houston, published seven years after the star’s death, Robyn recalls how she was 19 when she first met Whitney in 1980.
They were counsellors at a New Jersey summer camp and their friendship quickly turned romantic.
Robyn recalls telling Whitney: “I’m going to look out for you.” And that is what she did for the next two decades as Whitney’s friend and assistant.
Recalling how they first became physical, she said: “It was during that first summer that we met.
“It was the first time our lips touched. And it wasn’t anything planned, it just happened. And it felt wonderful. And then not long after that, we spent the night together.
“And that evening was the night that we touched. And that just brought us closer.”
Robyn told America’s Dateline TV show: “Whitney just came into my life all of a sudden.
“I didn’t know how long it was going to last. I was just enjoying the moment. And that’s what we did. We just enjoyed it.”
But Whitney ended the physical side of their relationship after about two years, soon after she signed a record deal with Clive Davis at Arista.
The singer broke the news by giving Robyn a gift of a Bible one day in 1982.
Robyn said: “She said we shouldn’t be physical... because it would make our journey even more difficult. She
She said if people found out they would use it against us ROBYN CRAWFORD ON ROMANCE WITH WHITNEY
said if people find out about us, they would use it against us and back in the 1980s that’s how it felt. I kept it safe. I found comfort in my silence.”
Whitney’s mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston, was concerned about their close bond. Robyn said: “Whitney told me her mother said it wasn’t natural for two women to be that close, but we were that close. We never talked about labels, like lesbian or gay. We just lived our lives, and I hoped it could go on that way forever.”
In her book, Robyn claims actor Eddie Murphy tried to halt Whitney’s wedding to Bobby Brown.
She said Whitney had tried to pursue a romance with the actor back in 1989, but he was “elusive”. He even stood Whitney up when she invited him to her home for a dinner date. Robyn said: “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 Whitney, who had a huge hit with 1992 movie The Bodyguard, was left heartbroken when Eddie “never showed up that night”. She went on to get engaged to singer Bobby
Brown, but on the day of the wedding, in July 1992, Robyn claims Eddie tried to stop it going ahead. Robyn said: “Eddie Murphy called to say she was making a mistake, but she pressed ahead.”
They divorced in 2007, and in 2012, Whitney died from drowning in an LA hotel bath and the effects of heart disease and cocaine use. She was 48. Whitney and Bobby’s daughter Bobbi was found unconscious in a bath at her home in 2015 and died six months later, aged 22.
Robyn said she decided to tell the story of her relationship with Whitney “to stand up for our friendship”.
She said: “I wanted to share the story of who she was before the fame and, in that, to embrace our friendship.”