Whitney Houston’s family is pushing back strongly against Oprah Winfrey’s account of an incident in which the late singer fell from a stage, denying claims that the moment happened during a performance after an alleged drug relapse.
Winfrey, 72, recently reflected on the reach and influence of The Oprah Winfrey Show, saying she once persuaded her studio audience not to circulate footage that she believed could have humiliated Houston, who died in 2012 at the age of 48.
Houston’s estate, however, rejected Winfrey’s characterization of the episode. In a statement released Tuesday, the family said the singer was not under the influence when the fall occurred and disputed the suggestion that it was tied to substance use.
Pat Houston, the late singer’s sister-in-law and the head of her estate, pushed back on Winfrey’s story in an Instagram post.
“Whitney absolutely fell off the stage, but it was during a sound check, and it was due to the darkness of the area and her unfamiliarity with the stage. She was absolutely not high,” Pat Houston said.
Pat acknowledged Houston’s well-documented struggles with addiction, but said it was wrong to connect those challenges to every difficult or awkward moment in the singer’s career. “Like many people, she faced personal battles, but it is inaccurate and unfair to attach that struggle to every performance or every chapter of her life,” she said.
Whitney Houston’s family has strongly denied Oprah Winfrey’s claim that she once persuaded an audience not to release footage of the singer falling from a stage after an alleged relapse. Houston is pictured in October 2009
Winfrey said she once pleaded with her audience not to share footage of Houston falling off a stage. She is pictured earlier this month
“What the studio audience witnessed on stage was the result of discipline, talent, and commitment – not the assumptions others project,” Pat added.
‘Whitney’s humanity included triumphs and struggles, but on that day, she showed up as the professional and gifted artist she always worked to be. We owe her the dignity of telling the truth, not repeating myths,’ she concluded.
This came after Winfrey had spoken at Cannes Lions, per Deadline, where she said she knew that Houston’s embarrassing tumble could have ended her career so she swooped in to save her from ruin.
‘I had such trust from The Oprah Show audience,’ Winfrey said at Cannes Lions, per Deadline.
‘The first interview I did with [Houston] … she was clean, but the day she came to perform in front of the audience she was not and she fell off the stage.’
Winfrey said she knew Houston would be ‘destroyed’ if the story were to get out.
‘Even though the audience had cameras, I begged them not to put those pictures out because it would ruin her life, and they did not,’ she added. ‘That would not happen today.’
The Oprah Winfrey Show ran for 25 seasons from September 1986 to May 2011 and aired 4,561 episodes.
However, Houston’s estate furiously disagreed with Oprah’s assessment of the mishap and claimed in a statement on Tuesday that the late singer had not been under the influence at the time of her embarrassing tumble
Houston gave a two-part interview with Winfrey in 2009 in what would be one of her last
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Winfrey fronted her titular show for 25 seasons from September 1986 to May 2011
Houston, who experienced numerous well-publicized drug battles, died of an accidental drowning in her bathtub at The Beverly Hilton February 11, 2012, aged 48 (pictured 2001)
To date, it remains the highest-rated daytime talk show in American television history.
Houston, who experienced numerous well-publicized drug battles, died of an accidental drowning in her bathtub at The Beverly Hilton February 11, 2012, aged 48.
Before her untimely death, she had been to rehab at least three times – in 2004, 2005 and 2011 – but struggled to stay sober.
In 2000, Houston was fired from a planned performance at the Academy Awards because of her erratic behavior during rehearsals.
Two years later the singer admitted to having used alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and pills during an interview with Diane Sawyer. But she insisted her troubles were all in the past.
Houston appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show multiple times – in 1998, 1999 and 2009.
By 2009, in what would be one of her final interviews, Houston told Winfrey that drug use had been an everyday thing for her since the mid-1990s.
Elsewhere during the two-part interview, they discussed the artist’s turbulent marriage to Bobby Brown.
Before her untimely death, Houston (pictured in 1999) had been to rehab at least three times – in 2004, 2005 and 2011 – but struggled to stay sober
They also spoke about her struggles with substance abuse and her return to the stage.
Talking about her drug use, Houston said: ‘We were lacing our marijuana with base. We weren’t on crack. We weren’t on no crack stuff.
‘We weren’t buying $20 jumbos. We were paying money. We were buying kilos and ounces and ounces. We would have our stash.’
She went onto describe her addiction as ‘painful.’
‘Sometimes you do have a good time,’ she said. ‘But when it gets to the point where you’re sitting in your home and you’re just trying to cover what you don’t want people to know.
‘It’s painful. And then you want more just so that you don’t let anybody see you cry. Or anybody to see we’re not happy.’
