Whitney Houston's traumatic family secret she took with her to the grave

Whitney Houston was nursing a deep hurt that she never told her family about at the time of her death.

The global superstar was just 48 when her body was found in the bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 11 2012 - and an inquest revealed she'd died with cocaine, cannabis and a number of pills in her system.

She'd been the subject of rumours about drug abuse since the late 1990s due to her jittery, erratic behaviour, weight loss and missing scheduled performances.

She got fired from the 2000 Oscars by close friend Burt Bacharach, who cited throat problems as a cover, but she later admitted to having been sacked from the awards ceremony.

Whitney did come clean about her drug abuse in a 2009 interview with Oprah, confessing her weight loss was down to substance use rather than stress, as her publicist had been telling the media.

But what the I Have Nothing singer didn't reveal was her dark family secret - one she'd been struggling to cope with for her entire life.

There was just one person Whitney confided in as an adult, telling her longtime assistant Mary Jones that she'd been abused by a female family member when she was a child.

Speaking to Kevin Macdonald for his documentary Whitney, Mary revealed how she came to find out about her employer's tragic childhood.

"[Whitney] looked at me and said, 'Mary, I was molested at a young age too. But it wasn't by a man - it was a woman,'" Mary said in the film.

"She had tears in her eyes. She says, 'Mommy don't know the things we went through.' I said, 'Have you ever told your mother?' She says, 'No.' I said, 'Well, maybe you need to tell her.' She said, 'No, my mother would hurt somebody if I told her who it was.'

"She just had tears rolling down her face, and I just hugged her. I said, 'One day when you get the nerve, you need to tell your mother. It will lift the burden off you,'" Mary added.

While Whitney never named her alleged abuser, her elder half-brother Gary Garland claimed he had also been molested by none other than their cousin Dee Dee Warwick - the sister of Dionne Warwick, and niece of Whitney's mother, Cissy Houston.

Dee Dee, who died in 2008, had been in her mid to late 20s at the time of the alleged abuse.

Gary told the documentary-maker: "Being a child - being seven, eight, nine years old - and being molested by a female family member of mine. My mother and father were gone a lot, so we stayed with a lot of different people... four, five different families who took care of us."

Cissy, who performed with Dionne and Dee Dee in their gospel group the Drinkard Singers, would leave her children in the care of family members during her tours - something Whitney refused to do as an adult, preferring to take her daughter Bobbi Kristina with her everywhere.

Mary also shed light on why Whitney never told her mum about the abuse, revealing: "I think she was ashamed... she used to say, 'I wonder if I did something to make [Dee Dee] think I wanted her.' I said, 'Stop. A predator is a predator is a predator.'

"If Cissy had known, she would have done something about it, because Cissy loves her children," she added.

Cissy herself issued a statement after the documentary aired in 2018.

"By this statement, we do not intend to defend, condone or excuse the crime of molestation," she said.

"We cannot, however, overstate the shock and horror we feel and the difficulty we have believing that my niece Dee Dee Warwick (Dionne’s sister) molested two of my three children."

Dionne also spoke out against the allegations, telling Larry King during an interview that the claims were "evil".

"I have tried to refrain from responding to that," she told the chat show host.

"First of all, it's totally hogwash. My sister would never, ever have done anything to do any harm to any child, especially within our family.

"And for those lies to be perpetuated in this so-called documentary film [Whitney], I think it's evil."

If you're struggling and need to talk, the Samaritans operate a free helpline open 24/7 on 116 123.

Alternatively, you can email Jo@samaritans.org

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCrnZOkv6V6wqhlrqNfmru1sdGtmKKmnZq7tXvCnqOemqKewbp71qGgraaVrnqpu9Ssq6imo2LBs63UppitoZNis6K5yKWwZquVmL%2BmwIxrZ3BuZGqCdg%3D%3D

Aldo Pusey

Update: 2024-09-01

PicoVibe