Oprah Winfrey revealed that she once begged her audience not to release photographs after Whitney Houston fell off the stage during her final appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2009, saying the incident would have “destroyed” her if it became public.
Speaking at Cannes Lions on Tuesday, Winfrey reflected on Houston’s struggles with addiction and the singer’s final appearance on her show.
“We did the whole ‘Hey girl, how you doing?’ greeting thing and then I stopped the cameras and I went behind stage and said, ‘So tell me, what do you want to happen here? And I’m gonna tell you what I want to happen here,’” Winfrey said, according to Variety, recalling a previous interview with the singer. “And that was one of the most powerful interviews.”
One of the most influential vocalists of her generation, Houston became known for hits like “I Will Always Love You” and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” as well as her role in The Bodyguard.
Her struggles with substance abuse became increasingly public in the later years of her career and she told Winfrey in 2009 that her drug use escalated during her marriage to Bobby Brown, describing it as “an everyday thing” at one point.
Houston died in February 2012 at the age of 48 after being found unresponsive in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton.
Winfrey revealed that Houston was clean when they did her first interview, but she had relapsed when she returned to perform in front of the audience and fell.
“I had such trust from the Oprah Show audience that Whitney did, I think, what was her last show with us. She had gone back on drugs,” Winfrey said.
“The first interview I did with her when we’d gone behind stage and I asked about her intentions, she was clean. But the day she came to my show to perform in front of the audience, she was not and she fell off of the stage.”
Winfrey said her immediate concern was preventing the incident from becoming public.
“I knew that if that story got out,” she said, “she would be destroyed by that.”
“And so even though the audience was there and the audience had cameras, I begged them not to put those pictures out because it would ruin her life, and they did not. That would not happen today, I can tell you that.”
Houston’s final appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show came in September 2009 during a special tied to the release of “I Look to You”, her final studio album. During the appearance, she performed “I Didn't Know My Own Strength”, written by Diane Warren.
Houston’s estate disputed Winfrey’s account in a statement to TMZ, saying the fall happened during a soundcheck in a dark area and that the singer was “absolutely not high”.
Pat Houston, who was Houston’s longtime manager, also issued a statement on Instagram, writing: “From the 2009 interview on the Oprah Winfrey show, Whitney absolutely fell off 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.”
“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. What the studio audience witnessed on stage was the result of discipline, talent, and commitment not the assumptions others project,” she added.
The Independent has reached out to Houston’s estate and Winfrey’s representatives for comment.
