Whitney Houston’s ‘girlfriend’ Robyn Crawford recalls horror at watching the singer marry Bobby Brown
Robyn Crawford and Whitney Houston circa 1988. (Getty)
Whitney Houston’s best friend Robyn Crawford, who said that the two were once in a relationship, has spoken about watching the singer marry Bobby Brown.
Almost eight years after Houston’s death, her close friend and longtime assistant Crawford has confirmed what was long rumoured: that the two had shared a romantic relationship.
Crawford addressed their bond in her new memoir, A Song For You: My Life with Whitney Houston, claiming that their relationship had become sexual when they met as teenagers in the early 80s.
“It was during that first summer that we met, was the first time our lips touched,” Crawford told NBC News.
“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.”
I was her maid of honour and I was very emotional.
In a newly-released excerpt from the book, Crawford recalled how she felt Houston “slipping away” after they ended their short-lived relationship due to homophobic pressures.
“I could live without being romantically involved, but I had trouble facing the walls that were going up…”
Houston would go on to marry rapper Bobby Brown in 1992, with whom she had a daughter, the late Bobbi Kristina.
“I was her maid of honour and I was very emotional,” Crawford wrote.
“I looked into her eyes when when I took her the bouquet, taking one last look.”
Houston and Brown divorced in 2007 following years of turmoil in which the singer had a highly-publicised battle with addiction.
Robyn Crawford and Whitney Houston.
Brown has often been blamed for Houston’s drug use, but Crawford has said that Houston was already using drugs when she met her would-be husband.
“She wasn’t doing [drugs] regularly, but she would do it sometimes — and sometimes might overdo it,” she said.
Brown has regularly denied introducing Houston to drugs, and has also acknowledged the relationship between his ex-wife and Crawford.
“We were married for 14 years,” he told Us Weekly in 2016. “There are some things we talked about that were personal to us.”
“I really feel that if Robyn was accepted into Whitney’s life, Whitney would still be alive today.”
Following Houston’s death, her mother Cissy Houston told Oprah Winfrey that she would “absolutely” have had a problem with her daughter being gay.
However Cissy, herself a singer, backtracked on her previous statements in the weeks leading up to Crawford’s book release.
In an interview with bishop Joseph Tolton, Cissy said that the acceptance of LGBT+ people “is about love and learning”.
