[sirens wailing]
[radio static]
[security] How are you doing? This is security from Beverly Hilton.
[responder] Hi, what's going on?
Need some paramedics, apparently. We got a 46-year-old female
found in the bathroom, that's all I got right now,
they are requesting paramedic help... [speaking indistinctly]
I'm not sure if she fell or she was in the bathroom with the water...
[responder] Okay, we don't now if she is conscious or breathing at all.
[security] Uh, apparently, she wasn't breathing... She's 46 years old.
[responder] She was not breathing?
[security] Yeah.
[woman] People say Whitney died from overdose of drugs.
Whitney Houston was drugged out.
I know, Whitney Houston,
actually died from a broken heart.
She died from a broken heart.
[audience cheering]
[cheering together]
It's like that, huh?
[woman yelling]
[clapping]
Thank you.
I'm tired! Let's do this show.
[Whitney] Well, Sir, I...
Now, there's a crowd out here.
[Whitney] There's a crowd...
[man] I want you, I want you to do...
[Whitney] Keep running, is my prerogative.
It's my prerogative.
♪ It's my prerogative ♪
-I'm good. -[man] Yes! Yes!
-[woman] Yes! Great! -[audience cheering gets louder]
[Whitney] Whoo!
[audience cheering]
♪ I hope life treats you kind ♪
♪ And I hope ♪
♪ You have all You've dreamed of ♪
♪ And I wish to you Joy and happiness ♪
♪ But above all this ♪
♪ I wish you love ♪
♪ Sweet love ♪
[audience cheering]
♪ Love, love, love ♪
[audience cheering]
♪ And I ♪
♪ Will always love you ♪
♪ I will always love you ♪
♪ I will always ♪
♪ Always love you ♪
♪ I will always love ♪
♪ You ♪
♪ I will always ♪
♪ Love ♪
♪ You ♪
[audience cheering]
[drums beating]
[music continues playing]
[Michael] I'm sitting, I'm playing drums behind her, right?
And I'm sitting, and I'm watching her,
and I'm watching the muscles in her back
and her everything just expand, like that.
You know, it's like a, it's like a...
She's like a doggone bodybuilder.
[Michael] And that's how she sand every night.
Every song.
[Wayne] Whitney's voice,
you know, unparalleled, I mean,
she was ridiculous.
It also cost her, near the end of the tours,
I mean, you could see the toll it took on her voice,
to have to do those performances night after night.
[Sharlotte] She was totally brilliant.
Totally brilliant, but,
everything came so naturally to her.
Whitney was created by God.
and Whitney's gift came from Him.
So the only one who could mess it up
was her.
[Kirk] It was a timber, a sound to her voice
that was just angelic.
There were many, many times
when Whitney's voice was just gone.
And by the time, you know...
I mean, we would lower the key of the song,
and then lower it again,
and then maybe lower it again,
but even then, you know,
when it came time for her to hit those notes, she wasn't there,
'cause she wasn't taking care of herself.
[Pattie] Whitney's voice,
broke barriers.
We did not have Beyonces,
and any African-American female artist
that can now be on top of the pop charts
that absolutely was not gonna happen,
before Whitney Houston.
It had not happened before Whitney Houston.
So she changed history for us
and she paid a price for it.
People may not know it, but Whitney was from the hood.
They wanted to present her as...
The princess,
that's white America was presented.
They won't present New Jersey Whitney.
[soft music playing]
[Whitney] I grew up
in Newark, New Jersey,
and in East Orange, New Jersey.
I do know, what it is,
to be black.
I know what it's like to see my black community people
not being given the opportunity
as others are given the opportunity.
[dance music playing]
[Gary] Whitney was very, in touch with her, her spiritual, you know...
her thoughts about being spiritual
and knowing where it came from.
from my mother, from growing up going to church,
you know, from reading the Bible,
from singing gospel songs,
from being affiliated with people who were in the church.
You know, things of that nature.
♪ Every time ♪
♪ Too later ♪
♪ Every time ♪
♪ Too later ♪
♪ If it all comes back ♪
♪ We'll be ready When it comes ♪
♪ If it all comes back ♪
♪ If the power comes back ♪
♪ We don't have a reason To raise now ♪
There you go, there you go!
[Whitney] The memories of singing in church
are ones that I cherish most.
[singing gospel songs indistinctly]
It wasn't worldly, it wasn't...
It was fresh, it wasn't stale.
Singing gospel was a energy, a passion.
[gospel singing continues]
[Cissy] And I taught Whitney, nobody else taught her.
I taught her, what she knew.
To sing from her heart.
She knew how, she learnt how,
she learnt to craft well.
And that's very important.
If you're gonna sing, you have to know how to sing,
and most people...
sing, I guess they learnt their way,
but she learnt the right way, 'cause that's what I taught her.
[Toni] She was spoiled.
She was the baby.
She was John's baby.
Nobody messed with her anyway.
Nobody... they didn't have the heart to.
They didn't have the heart to mess with Nippy.
[Ellin] I think she was closer to her dad
than her mother.
She felt that love more from her dad,
it could be, you know, she was the only girl.
Cissy is no joke.
Cissy is straight, stern,
she didn't doubt that her mother loved her,
but whether she could feel it
the way she did with like her dad,
I'm not sure.
[Frances] Her mother made her decisions,
her mother, I feel, was instrumental in,
creating the enormous career.
She guided her,
she chose the people that were around her,
she, um...
She influenced Whitney in her voice,
in her training,
in her choices.
Cissy was everything.
[Michael] We were the first black family up here.
-The house has been painted. I think it was white. -Yeah.
It looks... Now looks like they put, what's the name, on it.
Or they're the same?
The tower? The little pallet and whatever.
It's amazing, it's amazing.
So many memories.
I used to come in, sneak into the house,
and climb through the window into Whitney's bedroom,
she opened the window for me.
"Daddy will whoop your ass..." [chuckling]
My God...
[Michael] We've always, I could say, been together,
most of the time.
And her following behind me,
I taught her to drive, you know?
We played together, you know, I mean,
in everything that you do together, as you are growing up,
and then when you get into drugs,
you do that together, too.
[Gary] You know, I gotta say, at ten years old, I tried dugs, you know.
I was on heroin, I was ten years old...
I mean I saw people that I looked up to
using drugs, and I saw them doing
their best, being at their best.
[Ellin] When Whitney and I met, we were in our teens.
We were like, 18, 19.
Um, they did drugs.
You know, it was a thing you do.
You go out, you party, you drink, you do a little drugs,
everybody did it.
And her brothers gave it to her.
It was just something you do to have fun.
I mean, you know, my mother had a pretty good ray on me,
you know what I'm saying.
Um...
When you're raised in church,
and you're raised in the background of God-fearing religion,
you kind of... And it is instilled in you,
there's a certain boundary that you don't cross.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, I could have got into a lot more trouble than I got into, [chuckles]
if I hadn't thought about, "Ooh, my mother's gonna kill me."
Or, "My mother and my father are going to be so disappointed."
You know, "I know God's watching me."
[Robyn] I've been working with Whitney for 18 years now.
And I guess you can say that I've known her for 18 years, too.
I have a friendship that's our foundation.
I knew her brothers, went to school with them,
but never knew they had a sister.
And she was pretty low-key.
Smart, she knows how to play it, she's funny.
She's funny.
I didn't know, um... She was like this, um,
She'd come over, and...
My mom was real cool,
and Whitney would hang out,
and she'd be on the cover of Seventeen,
and wouldn't even tell anybody.
Isn't that funny!
My mother would have to go to the grocery store
and come back and say, "Robyn, you know so-and-so, so-and-so?"
I would know that maybe she had a photoshoot sometime ago,
but Whitney wouldn't tell anything.
Isn't that strange?
Young, and you'd think she would be like,
"Check me out." Mm-mm...
None of that.
I wonder if she was scared to, like, see it.
I never asked her that.
But she'd do strange things like that.
I would say that Whitney's sort of strange.
So you want to be...
[Whitney] Last day!
♪ When I think of you ♪
♪ And you're looking quite ho ♪
[Ellin] When I met them,
I think, Whitney had just moved in to her very first apartment,
and her and Robyn were sharing an apartment.
Robyn was older than Whitney, and I think,
people were picking on Whitney in school,
and Robyn, you know, would step in
to keep people from fighting her
and protect her from those people.
So they, I guess, created a bond then,
and they they just kept it.
Then Robyn became instrumental in helping her
make those decisions with her career and stuff like that.
[Kenneth] I first met Whitney when I first started to work at Arista Records.
She was a sweet kid at the time,
she was very insecure.
Um, she was not that polished,
I remember at a dinner in Washington D.C,
she made a joke about the amount of silverware,
the amount of service placing at dinner, and how do you use it.
I remember telling her, just trick the way I learnt the first time,
you watch everybody else and start from the outside.
She was very naive, she was very insecure,
she was always very concerned of,
people are gonna like her, people are gonna accept her.
And it's interesting because it was never really about the talent.
It was about how she looked,
and how she presented herself.
[female announcer] When Merv returns,
Arista Records President, Clive Davis introduces a great new singing talent.
This girl is 19 years old.
And rarely do you find, and you wonder,
there was Leena Horne, there was Dionne Warwick,
and certainly, currently...
She is Dionne Warwick's cousin.
By coincidence. I've never even talked to Dionne about this.
I mean that sincerely...
[Kenneth] Clive is a master at pop music.
He had a vision for pop artists.
He tried to do it with Dionne and Aretha.
But they were far too established in their career as to who they were.
And along comes Whitney,
who was so moldable,
and she was the perfect vehicle
for his foolproof vision.
-She's got it. -She got it.
♪ It's real ♪
♪ It's so real to me ♪
♪ And I've learned That we must look ♪
♪ Inside our hearts ♪
♪ To find... ♪
♪ Yeah, we gotta find ♪
♪ A world full of love ♪
♪ Like yours, like mine ♪
♪ Like home ♪
♪ Home ♪
[audience cheering]
[Kenneth] The company had this image in mind
that they were going to create a pop icon.
An artist that was accepted by the masses,
translating to white, white America.
[interviewer] How did you market Whitney for white audiences?
Put the past behind them and don't focus it.
And that's what we did.
You know, that sounds trite and small and insignificant, but it's not.
As you said, this is a very racial country.
And racism, and especially on the part of a black person
that's an artist, or whatever they may be,
normally...
Folks are looking for something in the background.
[TV show theme music playing]
The news about Whitney Houston is crackling through the music world,
and the news is good!
"She is a talent with tremendous potential." The New York Times
"Whitney has a pedigree in astronomy and major vocalist.
There is no doubt about it.
Whitney Houston is going to be a star."
[Doug] She was who she was, she came from where she came from.
From outta hood, you're from the hood!
There are some things you do, there are some things you like.
You dance, you play, you...
This is a certain... It's part of the culture you have.
Someone can take you out of that,
present you to be another way to the mass audience,
and you can play the part.
And Whitney played that part great,
'cause that was part of who she was. She was classy.
Her mother was Cissy Houston.
Her cousin was Dionne Warwick.
But at the heart of it, she was still Nippy.
Our next guest is, well, a spectacular 21-year-old singer
who recent album, debut album as a matter of fact,
received great reviews from the critics.
She is the daughter of singer, Cissy Houston,
a cousin of Dionne Warwick.
Whitney Houston, cousin of Dionne Warwick,
and daughter of gospel singer, Cissy Houston,
[interviewer] Your aunt is?
My cousin is Dionne Warwick.
And your aunt is Thelma.
No, no, no, we are no relation at all.
Oh, and who is your father? Duke Ellington...
[audience laughing]
[inaudible]
[Clive] Our music was deliberately pop.
Anything that was too black sounding
was sent back to the studio.
And to say "black sounding", in case you have a problem with that,
it's to say that it's too George Clinton.
It's too Funkadelic.
It's just too R&B.
We want Johnny Mitchell,
we want... and there was no... We want Mariah Carey,
we want Barbara Streisand.
We want to achieve that sound more so
then we'll want to achieve the other R&B sounds.
We don't want a female James Brown.
[photographer] Hold cameras.
Okay.
Congratulations. First of all, for having the No. 1 song in America.
Isn't that something? Thank you. [giggling]
How does that feel?
It feels great. It feels really, really great, I must tell you.
I should also explain to you that in the final product,
I'm not going to exist, it'll be just you...
-Oh... -Yeah.
-Too bad. [chuckling] -Oh, poor thing.
Um, so...
You need to make your answers fairly complete,
and ideally about a minute long.
If you go longer, fine, but just not really short.
Try to avoid it, okay?
Some of the criticisms of the album were that,
your voice was so good, it shouldn't be
wasted on pop cliche and things like that.
[laughing] Hm.
Do you feel that way at all,
Or will that influence your next album?
I doubt it.
I doubt it, um...
I did not go in to the studio,
wanting to make a pop album.
I went into the studio, I wanted to make good music.
♪ I found the greatest ♪
♪ Love of all Inside of me ♪
♪ The greatest love ♪
♪ Of all ♪
♪ Is easy to achieve ♪
♪ Learning to love yourself ♪
♪ It is the greatest Love of all ♪
♪ And if, by chance That special place ♪
♪ That you've been Dreaming of ♪
♪ Leads you to a lonely place ♪
♪ Find your strength ♪
♪ In love ♪
[audience cheering]
♪ I get so emotional, baby ♪
♪ Every time I think of you... ♪
[narrator] Clive Davis was right.
In January of 1986, she collected five American Music Awards.
And in February, she took Top Female Vocalist honors at the Grammy's.
Whitney!
"Greatest Love of All" by Whitney Houston.
[audience applauding]
Whitney Houston. Whitney Houston.
Whitney...
Houston!
Whitney Houston!
[audience cheering]
♪ I get so emotional, baby ♪
♪ Every time I think of you... ♪
They told me...
They told me to take as much time as I wanted.
I'm not asking for it now.
[audience applauding]
What can I say?
I like to thank my mom and dad
for the love and support.
I wouldn't have made it without you.
My brothers, Michael and Gary,
and Robyn.
[audience applauding]
[Doug] Whitney and Robyn, they fought those battles together,
from the beginning to a bona fide superstar.
They were close, they were tight.
Robyn was my go-to person. I love Robyn.
[soft music playing]
Whitney was at the top of the charts.
She had like, four, five, six or seven consecutive No. 1 records.
These were pop records, they were massive.
She was everywhere.
And to the black ear,
these records didn't have a natural feel.
These records were not natural R&B records.
So for the black audience,
the perspective was in the community that Whitney had sold out.
[audience cheering]
Whitney had been nominated that year
for Record of the Year award, Female Vocalist of the Year.
When her picture came across the screen,
there was this massive booing.
[audience booing]
And the winner is...
[Whitney] It's not a good feeling.
It is horrible, it's kind of funny, though.
Are they booing me?
You have to sit there and be like, cordial, and be smiling, like,
everything's okay, and you feel like,
"Oh, my God, they're not booing me, are they?"
Sometimes it gets down to being not black enough for them, you know.
Not R&B enough.
You're very pop.
The white audience have taken you away from them.
That moment of being booed
on Soul Train
was not only tough for Whitney, it was devastating.
It was devastating, it was emotionally devastating.
She, I don't think, ever recovered from it.
It was one of those boxes that was checked,
that when ultimately seen, she perished,
it was because of those boxes, and that was a big one.
Whitney insisted they crossed her back over to the black music.
"I'm Your Baby Tonight"
was not a record that Clive Davis wanted to make.
But she says, I'm not making another record like you want.
I want to do me now.
[soft music playing]
Her famous saying was, "Can I be me?"
In fact, she'd say it so much that we had it sampled.
"Can-can-can I be me?"
And that was the conundrum.
Like, "Damn it, I have made all this money,
and made all these people happy.
And I still can't be me."
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thank you so much!
I love you, mommy and daddy,
and my brothers, God bless you.
When you create somebody, when you create something,
at some point, that something realizes,
"This isn't me.
I've been created, I've been molded into this,"
and they break out of it.
She came from such a controlling family situation.
Um, she allowed that to happen.
Of course, maybe because of her upbringing, I don't know why.
But, um...
after a certain point, I think that anybody
and it was clear in her case that, um...
You can't take it much longer,
and you break out, you fall apart, and you crumble.
You're like, "I can't take the pressure anymore."
[interviewer] And who do you think was controlling her mainly?
Her mother.
Her mother, clearly. I think that, you know,
Whitney had the career that her mother always wanted.
Her records never achieved any real major success
and here comes her daughter
and if you read in her book, she references it in her book.
Whitney stole all of her style.
[piano music playing]
♪ I wanna say ♪
♪ Happy Birthday ♪
♪ To my daddy ♪
♪ I love you ♪
♪ So happy birthday ♪
♪ Happy Birthday ♪
♪ To ♪
♪ You ♪
[audience applauding]
[Whitney speaking indistinctly]
I just want to thank you
for your love.
And for being the best daddy any girl could have.
[soft piano music playing]
[Kirk] There was a deep, very complicated relationship with her father.
One of the things about being rich is that
uh, your family
is either dependent on you in one way or another financially
or they actually work for you.
And in this case, her father and mother worked for her.
And so did her brothers.
And her sister-in-law.
And with Whitney, we saw
the weirdness of her relationship with her dad,
as he was constantly trying to do what's right for her, you thought,
but then at times, you go, "I don't know what you're doing is right for her,
as much as what's right for her career."
"Well, how about her?"
♪ I love you so much ♪
♪ Yes, I do ♪
♪ Couldn't make it Without you ♪
♪ Hallelujah ♪
♪ I love you, daddy ♪
[audience applauding]
Thank you.
After the second album,
and its phenomenal success,
here folks really didn't realize
they really didn't know a whole lot about her, intimately.
Who she was hanging out with,
who she was going out with, and you know...
Who she was partying with.
Is there somebody that you are seeing?
Yeah, I'm seeing someone, absolutely, sure.
Sure, I'm seeing you right now with my own two eyes.
[laughing]
Has he actually, you know, rung you up,
while he's been in Britain or is it all a load of...
Has he actually what?
Rung you up, since he's been...
Rung me up!
[audience laughing]
Has he actually rung me up?
[audience laughing]
Yes, he has actually, rung me.
[audience laughing]
He has rung me, and I have runged him.
I said, I want to fuck you.
[gasping]
[host speaking French] Yes, so, I'm going to translate for you.
He said you are great.
He says you're very beautiful.
What?
No, I can't translate what he just said.
[host speaking French] He said he wants to offer you flowers.
[speaking French] Not at all, I said I wanted to fuck her.
[host speaking French] He said, he said...
Of course, she is wonderful but she can be shocked by your speech.
You're the best of the best.
Thank you.
[Whitney] A lot of what I've learnt, a lot of what I know,
kind of, takes the fun out of it.
I enjoy doing what I do.
I enjoy singing, I enjoy performing.
For people, you know...
But there is a lot of it about the business,
and about what I do that is not fun,
that you're subjected to,
and it's often not very fair.
Then they started a game, real intense, in terms of questions.
And...
You know, I'll have people call from radio stations,
and be on the conversation with program writers
and they'd say, "Hey man,
is Whitney gay?"
I'd say...
"Huh? I don't know, What made you..."
"Well, I've heard... You know."
And that was all over the place.
Rumors had already started about her sexuality.
When we travel, Robyn was always with us.
Depending on who you are, you had to get through Robyn to get to Whitney.
You have to understand the make-up of the guys who did the promotion,
700 music programmer-directors,
there are 99.9% heterosexual,
99.999 homophobic,
um...
and the rumor goes out that this woman is not a heterosexual.
They had a field day with that.
And heterosexual men always have a field day with that, anyway,
because the first thing they say is that, you know,
"What if she doesn't need me?"
You know? [chuckling]
[Whitney] This wasn't her world. I brought her into this madness.
And she goes, "Why am I the target? What did I do?"
I said, "You're my friend. What else do you want?
You play basketball.
They think you're a man, I don't know."
She's a damn good basketball player, she can beat any guy there is.
I love it. [laughing]
Okay, she plays basketball, do people think she is a lesbian?
She is a very tall, very broad woman.
She's been my friend for years.
I don't know, we just stuck it out.
[Allison] This was her friend, that she had around her,
for, you know, since the beginning of her career.
And all of a sudden, I think, she had people telling her what to do.
Her mother was there, much against it.
Clive was very much against it.
Was it cool to have a lesbian affair?
You know, today, I always think,
if she were an artist today, she'd be fine.
Everything would be lovely, she'd probably still be here.
But back then, it was this tremendous emphasis on being the perfect girl.
It became quite a conflict, and it's interesting, 'cause like I said,
you have drugs, you have this family riddled with drugs, and yet,
homosexuality is what you got to focus on.
When, you know,
you would have had a better time probably trying to handle those drugs,
than you would have with that.
But again, that religion, that fierce religion that, I think, Cissy had,
that was very important to her,
because it is the people talking, it is the church talking.
She's an elder in the church, she's a trustee in the church,
and your daughter's a homosexual.
And again,
female homosexuality in the black community is absolutely never spoken about.
I don't hear that at all. Never hear that.
Black men, yes. Black women, no.
-[interviewer] Even now? -Even now.
[woman] Are you not feeling it?
Lorrie, I don't have five minutes to eat.
What?
They hated the...
Hey, listen to me, huh?
I'm going on to a...
[Ellin] Whitney did not have a closeness
and feel safe with many people.
Robyn provided a safe place for her,
Robyn loved her,
cared for her, was a friend for her,
and didn't want to ever disappoint her.
In that, Whitney found safety and solace.
I don't think that she was gay.
I think she was bisexual.
If you loved her,
and she loved you, it was possible for her
to get into a physical relationship
'cause Whitney loved to be held and she loved to be embraced,
and she wanted to feel protected.
Do you believe that Whitney and Robyn were in a gay relationship?
I don't really know.
I thought, you know...
Would it have bothered you
if your daughter Whitney was gay?
Absolutely.
-It would have bothered you? -Mm-hmm.
So, were you happy when Bobby Brown came into the picture?
No.
-You weren't happy about that? -Mm-mm.
♪ All these Strange relationships ♪
♪ That really gets me down ♪
♪ I see nothin' wrong ♪
[audience cheering]
♪ Around ♪
[audience cheering]
♪ Everybody's talkin' All this stuff about me ♪
♪ Now ♪
♪ Why don't they Just let me live ♪
[Doug] And as you may be aware,
at the Soul Train Awards,
where she was booed, it was the same night,
she met Bobby Brown at the Soul Train Awards,
So you are talking about a total 360 image reversal.
This beautiful pop starlet is now with bad boy of R&B, Bobby Brown.
[audience cheering]
-Thank you. -And the winner is...
Bobby Brown!
I don't think I had won three awards that night,
and all of a sudden, someone just hit me in the back of the head.
And I turn around, and it was Whitney Houston.
And they said I was crazy, huh?
And she was like, "Oh, was I hittin' you?
I'm sorry." And she did it again.
She was trying to get my attention.
'Cause I was fly.
I knew it, she knew it, you know.
Thank you. I'm out of here, baby.
We found that we had a lot in common.
And we started hanging out more and more
Bobby was street, Bobby was hood.
Bobby was, Bobby had, as they say, Bobby had swag.
Whitney didn't grow up in Long Island.
She grew up in Newark.
Bobby grew up in Boston.
Came from a similar culture.
They just had a chemistry for whatever reason that worked for them.
[soft music playing]
[David] I met Bobby Brown in 1988, I believe.
We had a birthday party at Whitney's new home.
On th gate, were three guys,
one of whom was dressed
in a floral, turquoise short trousers suit.
Black loafers, and white socks bunched up around his ankles.
And his hair was cut like this, at a diagonal.
[man] Bobby, what are you doing at this party?
Whitney, Whitney, Whitney.
She invited me, I'm having a great time.
I just wanna say, "Happy birthday, Whitney."
[Bobby] You're doing great.
I wish I could be like you, one day.
[David] And as that evening went on,
she actually danced with him.
Robyn didn't take it especially well.
I think it adversely impacted her relationship with Whitney.
♪ Clap your hands Yeah, it's all right ♪
♪ Cause your love ♪
♪ Clap your hands Yeah, it's all right ♪
♪ Cause your love ♪
♪ Clap your hands Yeah, it's all right ♪
Mr. Bobby Brown!
♪ Yeah! ♪
[vocalizing]
Sing!
[vocalizing]
♪ It's true! ♪
♪ Yeah! ♪
♪ Yeah, baby! ♪
♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
♪ One more time! ♪
Here we go!
Mr. Brown!
The record is not over yet.
[drum roll]
Bobby Brown!
♪ Oh, yeah! ♪
♪ Bobby! ♪
♪ Oh, yeah! ♪
♪ Yeah! ♪
♪ Oh, yeah! ♪
♪ Yeah! ♪
[Pattie] He loved her,
as herself.
She could come off that stage,
and not have to be the person that everybody in the world expected her to be
or what they thought she was.
He understood that
part of her, he understood the pressure because he was Bobby Brown, you know.
He understood her pressure, and he understood her pain.
What do I think that Bobby and Whitney gave each other?
Acceptance,
love.
You know the love, because at the end of the day, she absolutely loved him.
And they loved each other.
But there was acceptance.
You know, for who they were,
and that feeling of
you don't feel like you have to be anybody but yourself,
with somebody.
They had that.
Where are you at this point of your life?
[giggling]
Um, married?
With a baby. Happy.
Um, content.
-Hm? -Yeah.
-Yeah? -Yeah.
Got a great career, I have not complaints, I am blessed.
So then, will you tell me about Bobby?
Bobby...
Was ready for the same things I was ready for.
Commitment.
Loyalty.
Security, trust.
A good woman, a good man.
They call him as a womanizer,
you know, that's pretty harsh, you know.
Um, I don't think my husband womanized anybody
'cause I know that if he wanted them,
they definitely wanted him,
you know.
I don't think it was about womanizing, I think boys will be boys.
And they have their fun, and they play.
When they really become smart, they find a good woman and they marry her.
And that's what he did. [giggles]
♪ He fills me up ♪
♪ He gives me love ♪
♪ More love than I've ever seen ♪
Just think I'm a slave.
I'm a slave and a horse.
♪ He's all I've got In this world ♪
♪ But he's all the man ♪
♪ That I need ♪
She's the most loving mother,
craziest wife,
for me.
Um, because I'm crazy myself, you know.
Everybody knows me, you know,
knows of me.
But in order to deal with a person like me,
she has to be the sweetest person in the world.
And also, the meanest person in the world at times, because,
it's like, I'm...
Bobby Brown, I'm...
I'm the original bad boy, they say.
But I'm not as bad as everybody thinks I am, so...
My wife to me, is just like...
She's just a joy to be around.
Mm.
I told you, I've never seen nothing like it.
That bond, people can say what they wanna say,
but I lived in the house.
You know what I'm saying?
For years.
So...
[interviewer] You know what they liked together?
Hm, you're funny.
They used to do skits from movies.
She'd be Tina Turner,
and he'd be Ike... [laughing]
[coughing]
[laughing]
Bye, bye, bye.
[Tina] Oh, no way.
No, honey, I'm tired.
I'm just saying, I don't know what might come out.
[Bobby] See, but you can't be tired.
I got, I got, I got... I got a lipsync we gotta play,
I got music,
I got all these shows I got to book for you.
But you know, you can't be sick.
Hey, hey... Pa-pa-pa!
[laughing]
You can't be tired.
I'm feeling kind of okay.
-I don't wanna eat. -Come on.
No...
[laughing]
[Tina] He told ya...
[both laughing]
This is what Tina did do.
[soft music playing]
[laughing]
Bad, bad, bad, bad.
You had those meatballs!
They took us in, and gave us food, and you killed them!
Bad, bad, bad!
[Tina laughing]
I need you to stay.
This is when we all eat.
This is what we do all day.
We just had pizzas,
and now we're going to have chicken wings.
You know who eats the most out of this room?
This lady right here, this little lady right here?
She eats the most.
Ooh, gotta good look...
Ooh, I gotta say, lovely.
I'm going to see set it off.
The ladies with me, yes!
Set it off!
[firing on TV]
♪ Why, oh, why ♪
[indistinct conversation]
[laughing]
You're in my room.
Don't forget about me.
Boo!
[soft music playing]
[interviewer] How long did you work as bodyguard for Whitney?
[David] From April 1988 until October 1995.
She knows that I looked after her with my life.
Very few people commit like that.
They didn't interview me for the job,
I interviewed them. Are these somebody I'm prepared to die for?
She was.
[gunshot]
That film encapsulated in two hours and ten minutes
what had been six years of our life,
together, absence two elements.
I'd never been shot at while with her,
and I've never made love to her.
You take those two out of the film,
it really becomes a boring two and a half hours.
♪ If I ♪
♪ Should stay ♪
[David] Kevin Costner had said to me,
when she sings that song in the first chorus,
I want it to be with no music.
And I said, "Kevin, that's so stupid.
No music? Are you kidding me? Are we trying to get on radio?"
And I'm standing there, and she goes,
♪ If I ♪
And it was like, "Oh, my God, are you kidding me?
This is the most incredible thing I've ever seen in my life."
And my demo did not include that,
I had music right from the start.
And from that second on,
I knew that the only way that the record could ever be that way
was with that a cappella piece.
One of the most breathtaking things I've ever been a part of,
and that wasn't even my doing.
It was Kevin Costner.
[crowd chattering]
[Pattie] Bodyguard just exploded her popularity.
So she was not prepared for that.
Before she became really, really big after the Bodyguard,
we would go to the mall, and we'd just go shopping,
and then, we noticed people would stop
and nobody would be moving.
She had to realize, "I can't come out anymore,"
because you couldn't get from point A to point B
without 20 people asking for autograph or a photo.
[crowd chattering]
[cameras clicking]
When it comes to the drugs,
I don't think that she realized
she had a problem until after the Bodyguard.
It was no longer recreational,
that this was something that she was doing more
out of necessity, than just to have fun.
[interviewer] How much has success changed you? How different are you?
Probably...
Probably, a lot more paranoid. [laughing]
I am... Success...
Doesn't change you, fame does.
Fame does.
You got a whole world of people
calling your name, and you really don't know them.
It's weird.
Is there a misconception of the fact that when,
we become famous that we have these beautiful perfect lives
and that nothing is ever on a low?
That's a bad conception.
'Cause then people always think that you have to be this grand old person
that just happy by the life and everything,
because what, we've got money? Money doesn't make you happy.
It never did, history will tell you that.
Even fame doesn't make you happy, you know.
People will tell you that, who are famous, you know, um...
You got to find that happiness in yourself,
you got to know who you are before you step into this business,
because if you're trying to find it,
you'll probably wind up being somebody else.
Um, someone that you probably don't even like.
[somber music playing]
Jesus!
[Kirk] Her rise to fame just took the wind out of her,
and those were times when she turned to God,
she turned to her faith.
Then she said, "God, you're the only one who understands.
You're the only one who accepts me as I am."
♪ Baby ♪
♪ If I could ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
[Kirk] I think the greater of them,
the greatest disappointment
was that she felt like she had let God down, too.
She knew that her gift came from Him.
She felt that she had let Him down,
with the way she had not taken care of her body,
of her instrument.
Are we all here?
All right, we're here, we're here, we're here.
We're asking for special, special blessing that you bring it all down here.
That you go inside, Father God, because only you know what's inside.
Only You know what's inside,
only You know how to fix things,
that we can't even fix.
We know there's power in the name of Jesus,
we know that the blood of the lamb covers us all
and there is a healing power
and we're asking that you do not pass us by.
[crowd cheering]
[Whitney] Can I take you some place with me?
Will you come along?
So when we to church, which is where I wanna take you right now,
we get very excited,
we get very happy,
we may start to cry,
because we feel a joy like a river in our souls
and we just have to let it out,
and sing praises
to the Almighty God, you know?
♪ Oh Lord ♪
♪ Oh Lord I love you ♪
♪ I do ♪
♪ I love you ♪
♪ I'll hasten, I'll hasten to his throne ♪
♪ Mighty, mighty Throne of His ♪
♪ I'll hasten, I'll hasten to his throne ♪
♪ I'll hasten to his throne Hold on hold on ♪
♪ I know I can go I know I can go ♪
♪ I surely love you I can't do without you ♪
♪ I can't live ♪
♪ I can't live Without you Jesus ♪
♪ I can't live Without your power ♪
♪ No, no ♪
♪ No, no, no ♪
♪ I cannot make it ♪
♪ Without your love Without your peace ♪
♪ You gave me joy Unspeakable ♪
♪ You gave me joy You gave me joy ♪
♪ Joy, joy ♪
♪ You gave me joy You gave me joy ♪
♪ You gave me joy ♪
♪ Nobody, nobody Can take it away ♪
[audience cheering]
[Kirk] There were moments when me and the audience would transform with her voice
and that is a God thing, that is not a human thing.
♪ Ooh, give it up for God ♪
Whitney knew that she had that gift.
She would knock you over and sing a gospel riff or whatever.
But then she could caress in such a noble way,
like, "Oh my God, this is a God thing."
♪ Ooh Lord ♪
♪ My Lord ♪
♪ We're saying that Don't pass me by ♪
-[audience applauding] -[inaudible]
I can't ask for more. What more?
This is the home of the dancers,
the background singers,
the gentleman we call the main chord to the band,
the backing unit,
-Makeup. -Hello.
-Hair. -Hi!
Robyn.
[hairdresser] Robyn, I'm going to get this photo of you.
[Robyn] That's all right.
Robyn and Whitney were like twins.
They were inseparable.
And everybody knew that the power that Robyn had.
You should be in your respective places.
Band and the dancers, up in the front here.
Right here, excuse us, on your knees.
[Kevin] Whitney and Robyn had a bond.
They had a bond
and Bobby Brown could never remove Robyn from the relationship.
And that was part of his frustration,
because he wanted Whitney Houston to love him
as the man of the relationship.
And he wanted Whitney to remove Robyn
from their relationship and Whitney didn't want to do it.
Because Robyn cared for Whitney more than she probably would care about anybody.
Say six!
[all] Six!
Here!
-[crowd cheering] -[indistinct chatter]
After a while, you get sleepy.
You just go with the flow.
[Robyn] I kind of know what Whitney wants to go on around her.
And sometimes, it's a little difficult to convey that to people.
You have to just go and do it yourself.
So most people would say I'm just about everywhere.
One, two, three, go.
♪ We take this chance ♪
♪ And extend to Each other romance ♪
♪ I hope it would be ♪
♪ The right thing ♪
♪ We take this chance ♪
♪ And extend to Each other romance ♪
♪ I hope it would be... ♪
♪ You knew you knew ♪
♪ If I told you that I wanted to see you ♪
♪ And if I told you that What would you say ♪
♪ If I told you that ♪
♪ I know that We were just friends ♪
♪ But what if I decide To bring somethings in ♪
♪ I hope it won't offend The trust ♪
♪ We have cause I don't want this to end... ♪
[David] Bobby Brown and Robyn together was the equivalent of fire and water,
petrol, and a short fuse,
they hated each other.
Yes. Simple.
They would battle for her affection,
they would battle for her attention,
mainly to identify the hate they had for each other.
This is Robocop.
We've already met.
This is Robocop.
We've already met.
This is my lady here, all right?
You mess with her, you got to mess with me.
All right? For sure.
And that's... Come here.
And that's Nicole.
[David] There were numerous fights between Robyn and Bobby Brown.
Serious fights.
Bobby and Robyn had some physical altercations.
And I think there were times when he wasn't always the winner.
Yes... [chuckling]
But then Whitney would come in between them and she...
Poured the oil on the troubled waters.
♪ How will I know? ♪
[audience cheering]
You know, I often have a conversation with my daughter.
One that I cherish so much so I'm going to share it with you.
Just so that you know that it is the real deal,
I ask her,
Who put the sun in the sky?
She says, "God, dear."
♪ Clap your hands Y'all it's all right ♪
♪ If tomorrow is judgment day ♪
♪ And I'm standin' On the front line ♪
You look so pretty.
♪ And the Lord ask me What I did with my life ♪
♪ I will say I spent it with you ♪
Right, I'm here.
♪ My name is Bobbi Kris, I just wanna say ♪
♪ Clap your hands Y'all it's all right ♪
Say it again.
♪ My name is Bobbi Kris I just wanna say ♪
♪ Clap your hands ♪
♪ Put it up Put it up ♪
Come on, Kris.
♪ Jump, jump, jump ♪
♪ Put it up Put it up ♪
♪ Jump, jump, jump ♪
♪ Clap your hands ♪
I said, the record is not over yet.
[audience cheering]
You know, these days you have to stay with your children,
you have to be as hip as they are.
And Bobbi Kris and I have a great relationship.
We really do and I am really really proud of that.
I cherish it, and I'm really
dying to get home to see her little face.
And she's dying for me to come home.
You know, that's a good feeling.
When she talks about me to her friends,
"My mom's away, my mom's coming back.
Look at what my mom brought me, she sent me, you know."
I send her dollies every now and then, you know,
'cause she loves dolls.
She loves to play with them.
I try to talk to her at least three times a week,
although it's very hard to talk.
It's worse to talk sometimes than to not talk,
because you feel that longing, that passion, that love,
between a child and a mother and it's very deep.
It's very strong, very strong.
When she had to leave, I had her out here for the first half,
before she went to school,
the day she had to leave, I thought that I would be strong
and I wouldn't cry, but I couldn't help it.
And I just really broke down, and she did, too.
And it made me feel really good
and I felt really bad because I knew I had to let her go.
But it made me feel really good to know that she would
miss me and love me as much as I missed her and loved her.
[David] Sweet kid, she really was.
She'd run up and down the corridors, in and out of everybody's rooms,
that sort of thing, yeah.
I did think, the writing's on the wall for this kid, no I did not.
because you always think Whitney would like to continue hope.
and something would have twigged, or clicked, it would have made it better for her.
Uh, but that's... As time went on? No.
No. No chance for Bobbi Kristina.
She came in to the environment
just when it started to get worse.
And I'm convinced now
that had anyone
read, listened to, and acted upon my report,
she would now be alive.
As would her daughter.
I submitted my report to the family members
who were in charge of the business of Whitney Houston,
after a disastrous tour, to Singapore.
Part of my duty to not only protect the principal from the outside elements,
is to protect them from themselves.
She had nodules on her throat.
It was being destroyed,
presumably with the chemicals.
Whitney overdosed while she was making the film Waiting to Exhale.
That's when you got a problem.
Everybody was on drugs.
It's a case of degrees.
To what degree the individuals concerned were on drugs. That's all.
I put it down on paper.
I got the telephone call, and the meeting.
Thank you very much.
Ms. Houston has decided she doesn't need anyone
of your caliber and experience again,
because she is not touring internationally in the future.
Should we need someone of your skills, we will call upon you.
And that was the answer to the
"Do something to help her." Report.
[cameraman] Over here, over here, this way!
[cameras clicking]
What's with that, now!
[David] There was that level of inevitability about the end of this.
Shortly after 1992.
Bobby Brown came on the scene.
Lots of drinking, lots of partying,
though by herself,
she would have done anything to remain nondescript.
When in his presence, it became a competition.
Put that fucking camera on me.
That's right.
Let me get that mic.
Let us do this ourselves.
Yo, yo, yo!
We'll just talk.
Man, just talk.
Can you tell me what tonight's all about?
Why would I want to say it? Isn't it obvious?
It's my birthday, dog!
Check it out.
It's my birthday, my wife gave me a party.
Yes.
And we're just chilling, right?
Yo, MTV!
It's my birthday, dog! It's my birthday, dog!
Boom!
[cameras clicking]
[Pattie] Whitney was getting high before Bobby ever came in the picture.
I think they had a co-dependent relationship.
Bobby didn't really do drugs until he met Whitney
and Whitney didn't really drink until she met Bobby.
But they both had their thing.
She had her drugs, he had his liquor.
And when they came together, they both started doing both,
which was terrible.
[crowd clamoring]
Bobby was notorious for sleeping with the girls on the tour.
He was not really ready to take on the role of a husband.
Remember he was much younger than her.
When Whitney got married, Whitney got married forever.
That was her biggest downfall.
The longer she stayed in it,
the harder it was to get out.
She didn't wanna go against God and get a divorce.
And then once she had Bobbi Kristina,
she wanted her to have her father,
and even though he was not treating her right,
I think she stayed for Bobbi Kristina.
[yelling]
[soft music playing]
She's picking in my ass.
[laughing]
[Allison] Bobby brought her down, because he wanted to be up.
And she brought herself down, trying to be on his level.
So it was a sort of emotional blackmail
of "You're no better than me.
You're not that big of a star. You don't deserve all this.
You're just lucky."
Just things like that, that play tricks with her mind,
because she had low self-esteem.
How she was so worried about her hair.
She wore wigs and weaves.
Her hair wouldn't grow, and her nails wouldn't grow.
This is this big superstar
and she never had that security.
Um, that she sort of needed, she never had that inner belief
that she was this amazing person.
She was always sort of doubting herself,
and I think Bobby contributed that tremendously.
[soft music playing]
[interviewer] Did Robyn try and keep Whitney off drugs?
[Kevin] She did.
She did.
They've had dozens of arguments
over Whitney getting high.
Mama, come here, feel my feet.
Put you hand right here.
And something that started as simple as Whitney smoking weed,
turned into a monster.
Turned into something that Whitney lost control of.
All of the people that had positions of power,
they could have steered her the right way.
It was either not seeing what was happening,
or being a part of it.
On page 128, you write about the first time you hear anything
about Whitney using drugs.
You say, "One afternoon, in the late 1980's,
80's,
Robyn came to visit me.
She told me, that Nippy was using drugs,
which was news to me."
She was telling on Nippy, actually, yeah.
Like I said, I went to her.
-You went to Nippy? -Mm-hmm.
After the visit from Robyn.
I saw her one time really high.
I wanted to kill her.
I really did.
But I held myself back
and Nippy said, "Mommy, mommy."
And she was so sad and beautiful.
[Ellin] Then one time, Whitney wasn't even talking to her mom.
Nobody wanna blame Whitney.
But Cissy made it no secret,
she wanted to beat Robyn onto something.
She wanted to kick Robyn's ass,
you know, every opportunity she get,
she wanted to do something to Robyn.
[indistinct chatter]
They needed to blame somebody.
Before it was Bobby, it was Robyn.
We blame Robyn, because Whitney
don't wanna talk to us, it's Robyn's fault.
No, it's your fault!
Did she shut off from it? Did she try and shut off it?
Did she refuse to answer phone calls from these people?
Hell, yes, she did.
For her own sanity, her own peace of mind.
Would that kind of pressure being brought on her by others
have driven her in a direction she otherwise may not have gone?
Hell, yes, it did.
Yes, it did.
That's why there is not one person out there
not responsible for the demise of that beautiful woman.
[audience cheering]
[Ellin] There was nothing I could do.
And not being a family member,
or someone high enough in the food chain,
I had no say.
I could only talk to her in those moments
when we were doing hair, and I could just tell her,
"Whitney, you're killing yourself.
You're gonna die. You have to stop."
I also spoke to other people in her camp,
maybe she just needs to stop for a while,
go to rehab,
but when you're making money for people,
you're paying their rent, they don't want you to stop.
-[audience cheering] -[indistinct]
People forget that they are human beings.
And she felt deeply.
That's how she could bring what she did to songs.
That's how she could make every song her own.
[audience cheering]
[woman] How many times do we change?
[audience cheering]
She would have to pull and sing from every place in her
and then to couple that with the emotion,
that takes all of your body.
Who does that
at the level that Whitney Houston did it?
I haven't seen anybody do it, not in my lifetime.
There always will be only one Whitney Houston,
and to watch the world receive from her
and appreciate her, there aren't words for that.
And all you can say is drug addict? Come on.
Please.
♪ When those tears Are clouding up your eyes ♪
♪ Just remember it was you ♪
♪ Who said goodbye ♪
♪ I learned from the best ♪
Okay, you got it, you got it.
Whitney, please don't forget me.
[Whitney] I won't.
[woman] Thank you, Whitney.
-All right. -Thank you.
Yes?
Sure.
[Whitney] Bobby, get in the car. I wanted to ride,
What's taking you?
Marilyn, get in the car.
Yes, real quick.
Really quick.
Mm-mm.
Now you're asking for some things.
All right.
[loud dance music playing]
No, we're not leaving, we're not leaving.
We're not leaving.
[man] Get the car loaded, we're not leaving.
[David] It was from one disaster to another disaster.
There was no order from chaos.
I can't remember,
there ever being a good moment
between Robyn and Bobby Brown.
It might, I think, there came a time,
when even Whitney couldn't tolerate it anymore
and Robyn finally left.
Robyn!
Why are you leaving?
[soft music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[Allison] Robyn totally disappeared.
I'm assuming they paid her off.
I don't know, but she just disappeared.
I never saw her again.
And she was everywhere with her before.
I think they prevented it.
I think it was sort of understood that they could not connect again.
It had to be Bobby and Whitney and this family unit.
Although I would say that that was the downfall of Whitney.
Robyn was the person that was keeping her together.
And I think that's why the drugs became so important to her.
That was the crutch she used to get through that.
The drugs
sent her spiraling.
[announcer] This is the 72nd Annual Academy Awards.
[audience applauding]
[Burt] We do the rehearsal Friday night.
She sings the first twelve bars of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."
And she's singing her own notes.
Basically, you're changing the melody substantially.
Then a couple of other things that just went wrong,
she came in on the wrong song,
so it was just like a train wreck.
It was kind of startling.
This was so dangerous.
This is live television.
And there was no salvation on something like that.
She's singing the wrong song.
Nobody would know what to do,
even Ray Charles wouldn't know how to cover that.
And how we would jump around, we'd be scrambling.
So the right decision was made.
Of course, that's a very difficult thing to do
at that hour of the night, at midnight, on Friday night, and the show goes on Sunday.
To replace her.
[audience cheering]
♪ If you can't Feed your baby... ♪
That Michael Jackson concert when she was emaciated.
I remember walking in, they called me in to do her hair,
and I could not believe what I was seeing.
And I could hear people saying, "You look fabulous."
And I'm saying, "No, she doesn't."
Then I take Whitney in the bathroom,
and close the door, and I pull her shirt off in the mirror,
and I say, "Look! You're dying."
And she started crying.
She said, "I know. I don't know what to do."
Is it alcohol?
Is it marijuana?
Is it cocaine? Is it pills?
It has been, at times.
All?
At times.
If you had to name the devil,
for you, the biggest devil among them.
[inhaling] That would be me.
[narrator] And then, last September, the biggest blow of all.
Houston's father, who managed her finances,
joined his business partner in a lawsuit against her,
demanding $100,000,000.
I'm tired of being hurt.
I'm tired of being in a neglected state.
You get your act together, honey.
And you pay me the money that you owe me.
My father is...
81, very sick,
his health is failing,
the bad part about it is that it's about money.
And that really sucks.
That hurts more than anything.
When you think that it's the dad who dressed you,
and walked you down the aisle,
what are you thinking?
That moment.
Can he stop, please?
-Sure. -Thanks.
I'll be back.
[Allison] I think the biggest change in her came
when her dad disappointed her.
She was closer to her dad
than her mother.
She was secure in the fact that Daddy's got my back,
Daddy's gonna take care of me, he's gonna protect me,
and when that trust was broken for her,
I think it broke something inside of her
that she could never repair.
[Allison] She disappeared for a while,
because I remember, I went asking for Whitney, particularly after the show,
which was hard,
she got out of town for a while.
I heard that she moved to Atlanta,
and that provided a whole another area of, you know, sort of,
I guess, a little bit more freedom?
It's a very fun place,
and I think there is less spotlight on you there.
Plus, she is away from her mother as well.
[crowd clamoring]
Aren't you motherfucking hot?
We knew it, don't we?
[laughing hysterically]
I'm gonna try it.
Come here.
[Tina] She wanted to be normal.
Many nights, she lay in her bed,
and cried, cried, cried.
She missed her dad,
she loved Bobby girl so much,
That was her life.
We used to slide down that banister.
Me and Whitney used to slide down that.
That's probably months old.
Remember when I told you that Cissy came to the house,
for her rehab?
You see that balcony?
When I was backing up here,
with the girls in the car,
they was like, "No, wait, wait, look!"
She had one leg over.
Over the balcony?
She said,"Don't come back, I'm a jump."
Well, I did had to go back.
Wish she jumped out the back one that time. [laughing]
Crazy.
She was an addict.
[Whitney] It was an everyday thing.
I would do my work,
but it was like, after I did the work
for a whole year or two,
it was everyday.
I would still read my Bible, and amazingly enough,
I would still read my Bible,
I still had it in me, I knew God was there, I knew light was there,
and I was just trying to get back to it.
I was definitely... I wasn't happy,
but at that point of time, I was...
I was losing myself, my mom came and got me twice.
When it gets to a point when you're just 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 anyone see you cry.
Or let anybody see that we're unhappy.
[Pattie] Whitney said to me,
her heart was broken.
She was broken-hearted, you know.
This was my friend, my sister.
She was so loving,
and generous.
Why isn't anybody out there rallying for that,
with the same fervor of attack and criticism against her?
Where is the great appreciation for her contribution to the world?
Whitney talked about how it was very, very painful for her.
She was bad at that time, but she wanted help.
She wanted help,
but she didn't want to be in some rich,
extravagant treatment facility.
She wanted to be home, she wanted her daughter with her...
All she wanted to do was to be married, and raise Krissie,
you know, be in love, and be happy,
and give her daughter what she wanted.
And she wanted to be normal.
She really didn't care about the fancy clothes,
the fancy cars, and stuff like that.
She just wanted to be normal.
♪ It's time, To make that change ♪
♪ People of the world Today are fading ♪
♪ All of us Have our ups and downs ♪
♪ You better think about it Or you won't be around ♪
♪ What we need is A little bit of love ♪
♪ Sent by One From Heaven above ♪
[Laurie] She would say to me,
I want to get out of drugs
and be a mother to my daughter.
I wanna take care of my daughter.
[soft music playing]
Hey... [speaking indistinctly]
Huh?
[both speaking indistinctly]
[speaking indistinctly]
Don't tell my daughter...
She's my daughter, too.
You have to understand something.
She's a star's kid.
She'll start out like that.
She's nothing but a kid full of life.
[speaking indistinctly]
Don't worry about me.
Don't.
Don't you do that.
I love her so much.
Ready to work out. One, two, three, four.
Five, six, seven.
[laughing]
Come on.
[Laurie] In the beginning, Bobby was very supportive,
with Whitney being clean.
But the third month that we were together,
he had said that,
"This stuff that my wife is doing,
clean, is disturbing to me."
He started saying no
and she started taking cars, and she started taking houses.
Why are you looking at me like that?
[laughing]
Your father is a nut.
[Laurie] So I became the enemy, with Bobby.
Because she said,
I always got to be the ballerina on the stage, singing,
pulling in the money
to take care of everybody else,
and everybody else is working for me.
So where do I find time for me?
♪ I need you desperately ♪
♪ So here I am ♪
♪ Can you please tell me ♪
♪ Oh, where do Broken hearts go ♪
♪ Can they find Their way home ♪
♪ Back to the open arms ♪
♪ Of a love That's waiting there ♪
♪ And if somebody loves you ♪
♪ If they love you ♪
♪ Won't they always love you ♪
♪ I look in your eyes... ♪
[Laurie] At the end...
"Why can't he have a mend?"
You know, I guess he started dating, messing around,
somebody else,
which was painful for Whitney.
[Whitney] He was my drug.
I didn't do anything without him.
I wouldn't do anything by myself. It was me and him.
We were partners.
And that's what, my high was, him.
He and I being together, whatever we did, we did together.
No matter what, we did it together.
♪ And no matter how I try ♪
♪ You're always on my mind... ♪
[Laurie] Bobby getting into another relationship
was real painful for her.
So, I think that's why she reverted back to drugs.
Because when you're using, you don't care about nothing.
Especially crack.
[Ellin] I have to say
for ten years or so,
I started waiting for the phone call that we all finally got.
[sirens wailing]
That she had passed.
[soft music playing]
And I opened the door,
it was dark,
but,
she wasn't in her bed.
She wasn't in the bed.
[sighing]
So...
I walked into the bathroom,
my baby was in a tub.
[woman] Go, go, go!
[sirens wailing]
[cameras clicking]
[soft music playing]
[reporter indistinctly]
[interviewer] How would you like to be remembered?
Oh, God, how do I like to be remembered?
You know, probably doesn't matter anyway
because they're gonna remember me how they wanna remember me anyway...
[laughing] They're gonna write books,
they're gonna write this, write that, and they're gonna have their own idea.
I don't know, I just want people to remember me just being a nice person.
[laughing]
You know... Somebody who cared,
somebody who tried to do everybody righteously.
I don't wanna go down for being a hag.
[laughing] You know?
[interviewer] I don't think you will.
-[laughing] -Don't worry about it.
Okay, so that's it from me.
Okay, great.
Nice talking to you.
♪ Whatever you want ♪
♪ Whatever you need ♪
♪ Anything you Want done, baby ♪
♪ I'll do it naturally ♪
♪ 'Cause I'm every woman Every woman ♪
♪ It's all in me ♪
[fast paced music playing]
♪ Come on, Come on, come on! ♪
♪ Put them up, Put them up! ♪
♪ Ooh, yeah! ♪
[soft music playing]