WHITNEY HOUSTON
Robyn Crawford tells it like it was
It’s been almost 8 years since Whitney Houston died of a drug overdose and now comes a tell-all book by her best friend, Robyn Crawford. In the new memoir, A Song For You: My Life with Whitney Houston, Crawford breaks her silence about their relationship and other truths.
Crawford sat for an interview with NBC’s Craig Melvin. She discussed details of their love story and why she decided to write the book. “I watched her rise to the top of her game and I felt compelled to share who that woman was behind all the fame,” she told Melvin.
The two women met, as teenagers, in 1980. “It was during that first summer that we met,” Crawford told NBC. “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,” said Crawford. But, it ended once Houston signed a record deal with Clive Davis of Arista in 1983. Crawford says Houston ended their physical romance because she was afraid people would find out and use it against them. Crawford also revealed the singer’s mother had issues with their closeness. In a 2013 interview to promote her book, Remembering Whitney, Cissy Houston told Oprah she would have been bothered if her daughter was gay and would not have condoned it.
Their friendship remained solid as Houston transformed into a global superstar. Houston was the vocal genius and Crawford, her close confidante. They lived together as roommates, but rumors continued to circulate about them. In a 1987 Time Magazine profile, Houston said of the rumors: “I’m not with any man. I’m not in love. People see Robyn with me and they draw their own conclusions. Anyway, whose business is it if you’re gay or like dogs? What others do shouldn’t matter. Let people talk. It doesn’t bother me because I know I’m not gay. I don’t care.”
Crawford says she kept her relationship with Houston “safe’ and “found comfort in silence.” She shares their story now because she “felt the need to stand up for our friendship.”
A Song For You: My Life with Whitney Houston available November 12.
