I’m late to this story.
But I’m very surprised that Oprah Winfrey is declaring negative things about Whitney Houston.
Oprah made the remarks in her speech at Cannes Lion — the advertising festival in Cannes that has nothing to do with the Cannes Film Festival.
Winfrey told the crowd that Whitney was high on drugs when she fell off the stage at Oprah’s TV show in 2009.
This has set off wild arguing, with Whitney’s sister-in-law and manager, Pat Houston, saying Oprah is lying. Or perhaps, misremembering for effect.
More importantly, I can tell you definitively and exclusively that this is a far different story than Oprah told in 2021.
Oprah was the guest of the now late and beloved Clive Davis during a Zoom call to raise money for the Grammy Museum. I watched it live and reported on it in real time.
Clive had brought Whitney to the Oprah show for the taping. He was with her, as were several of her close associates.
Gossips had always surmised that the cause of Whitney’s fall was drugs.
But on May 15, 2021, Oprah agreed with Clive, on video, live, that was not the case.
Watching the live feed, I wrote: “It was not drugs,” Oprah said, and Clive agreed. She slipped, but it unnerved Whitney so that she took a break to regroup. During the break Oprah begged the audience to keep it a secret.
I continued: “To this day I’ve never read or heard anyone say it,” said Oprah. Whitney, by the way, returned to the stage and got a standing ovation. She triumphed over the accident.
So what the heck is going on here? Oprah knows her Cannes Lion statement is not true. I know where the video is, and will produce it if necessary. But every person who was on that Zoom heard it, too. She wasn’t saying it to appease Clive. They’d obviously discussed this in advance. There was no reason to make it up in 2021. And there’s no reason to lie about it now except to make headlines.
I want to say that I was close enough to Whitney and Clive during her entire career. Clive Davis did everything in his power to help Whitney. He guided her, and helped with rehab. For a long time, I had the number of Whitney’s drug counselor — provided by Clive — in my Blackberry. He really was like a father to her. But you can’t make an addict stop unless they want to do it.
As for Oprah, her reputation has mutated since she left her talk show. Her participation in showcasing the “Leaving Neverland” documentary on HBO was a fiasco. Getting involved with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle also dimmed her legacy. She’s done herself no favors by exploiting Whitney Houston in Cannes just to get headlines.
I’m very disappointed.
You can see Whitney’s performance below. She looked great at the time, and was actually ‘clean.’ This was far different than her nadir, in 2001, when she seemed like she might perish on stage at Michael Jackson’s 30th anniversary concert. In the video, she looks beautiful and her voice is outstanding.
