Whitney Houston confesses to Oprah Winfrey: "my drug hell on crack cocaine" - TelegraphWhitney Houston confesses to Oprah Winfrey: "my drug hell on crack cocaine"
Whitney Houston has admitted to Oprah Winfrey that her life spiralled out of control on a cocktail of drugs she took with ex husband Bobby Brown, who was abusive and even spat on her.
Television talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, right, and Whitney Houston during an interview at the Town Hall in New York Photo: APThe 46 year-old admitted to the chat show queen that she took crack cocaine and marijuana despite denying using the drug after uttering the now-famous phrase: "Crack is wack”.
After a long absence from music, Houston is staging a career comeback with a new album I Look to You", which has entered the U.S. Billboard 200 chart at No. 1, and a two-part appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
In the wide-ranging interview, aired on national television in America on Monday, Houston described how her life fell apart in the early 1990’s not long after she married Brown.
She admitted her drug use became "heavy" after her 1992 movie The Bodyguard when she would take marijuana combined with cocaine.
Houston, one of the best-selling artists of all time, said by the time she made the movie The Preacher's Wife in 1996 she was taking drugs on a daily basis.
"You put your marijuana, you lace it, you roll it up and you smoke it," Houston said.
"I had so much money and so much access to what I wanted.
"I didn't think about the singing part anymore. I was looking for my young womanhood.”
Houston, who has sold more than 140 million albums worldwide, has grappled with drug problems for most of her career.
During their marriage, Brown was arrested on drug and alcohol charges while Houston twice entered drug rehabilitation programs.
Houston said she stuck with Brown for as long as she did because she took her marriage vows seriously.
The couple married in 1992, split in 2006 and were divorced in 2007.
She has custody of their teenage daughter, Bobbi Kristina, 16.
Houston told Winfrey that Brown wasn't physically abusive but "he slapped me once but he got hit on the head three times by me”.
She described an episode after a birthday party for Brown, who was also “emotionally abusive”, that left her "horrified”.
“He spat on me and he had hate, such a hate in his eyes for me,” she said.
“I was angry. I was very hurt. I knew something was going to blow.”
She said their daughter witnessed the incident, which left Houston "very hurt, very angry”.
Winfrey said her addiction got so bad that her mother, soul singer Cissy Houston, arrived at her home with police armed with a court injunction in a desperate bid to get her into rehab.
"She said, 'I'm not losing you to the world. I'm not losing you to Satan. ... I want my daughter back’,” Houston said.
"She said 'either you do it my way or we'll go on TV and (say) you're gonna retire’."
During a 2002 interview with Diane Sawyer, Houston admitted dabbling in drugs but denied ever taking crack, even adding: “crack is whack”.
She denied she had lied during that interview.