Oprah Winfrey once helped cover up Whitney Houston’s fall on stage during an appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
“We kept saying, ‘Hey girl, how are you doing?’ We said hello, and then we stopped the camera and went to the back of the stage and said, ‘So tell us what you want to happen here.’ And I’ll tell you what I want to happen here. “And it was one of the most powerful interviews,” Winfrey, 72, said Tuesday at Cannes Lions.
Houston, who had struggled with substance abuse for many years, later returned to appear on talk shows, but by then he had already relapsed.
“The Oprah Show viewers trusted her so much…I think that was[Houston’s]last show with us, and she turned to drugs again,” the Emmy Award-winning host continued. “The first time I interviewed her was when I went backstage and I asked her about her intentions and she was clean.”
“But the day she came to my show to perform in front of the audience, she didn’t and fell off the stage,” she said.
Winfrey, who won the Lionheart Award at this year’s Cannes Lions, said: “I knew that if that story got out…it would destroy her.”
Winfrey continued, “So even though there was an audience and they had cameras, I begged them not to release those photos because it would ruin her life, and they wouldn’t do that. That wouldn’t happen today, I can tell you.”
Immediately after Winfrey’s claims were made public, Houston’s estate responded to TMZ with an applause statement: “Whitney did fall off stage, but it was during sound check, and it was due to the darkness of the room and her unfamiliarity with the stage. She was in no way high.”
They acknowledged Houston’s struggle with addiction, adding, “Like many people, she faced personal struggles, but it would be inaccurate and unfair to link that struggle to every performance or every chapter of her life. What the studio audience witnessed on stage was the result of discipline, talent, and dedication, not assumptions projected by others.”
“Whitney’s humanity included triumphs and struggles, but on that day she emerged as the professional and talented artist she always strived to be. We owe her the dignity of telling the truth, not repeating myths.”
The “Greatest Love” hitmaker died at the age of 48 in February 2012 after accidentally drowning in her bathtub. However, heart disease and the effects of cocaine use were also cited as the underlying causes behind her death.
For many years, it was believed that Ms. Houston began abusing drugs during her relationship with Bobby Brown, whom she had been married to since 1992 and before filing for divorce in 2006.
However, according to the 2018 documentary “Whitney,” Houston’s history with drug use began long before she met the “My Prerogative” artist.
In the film, it is revealed that Houston’s brothers Gary and Michael (who would travel with her sister and serve as her bodyguards) both admitted to facilitating and participating in her sister’s drug use.
“If something was going to be done, I was going to show it to her,” Michael says in the film.
Keith Kelly, a friend of the brothers, also admitted that he was the one who gave Houston her first drugs (a bag of marijuana and a dose of cocaine) on her 16th birthday.
“There’s a funny, kind of tragic moment where her brother Michael says, ‘We had a ring around Bobby. He couldn’t keep up with us. We drove him down on drugs. He’s a light guy,'” director Kevin MacDonald told The Post at the time. “That just vindicates Bobby.”
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Helpline at 800-662-4357.
