Oprah Winfrey revealed a long-hidden story about Whitney Houston during a prestigious advertising conference in Cannes, where she was receiving an award. Winfrey said that when Houston appeared on her talk show in 2009, the singer was so intoxicated that she fell off the stage during the performance. The revelation comes 14 years after Houston’s death.
Winfrey said the backstage interview footage had shown Houston sober, but when she came out to perform before the studio audience, “she was not clean” and fell. Winfrey said she immediately understood the damage such an incident could do to Houston, who was at a particularly vulnerable low point in her life, and moved to protect her. “I knew if that story got out, it would just destroy her,” Winfrey said.
According to Winfrey, the studio was full of people with cameras, but she begged them not to circulate any images. “I pleaded with them not to publish the photos because it would ruin her life. They did not publish them. Something like that could not happen today,” she said.
Houston’s 2009 appearance on Winfrey’s show was then presented as a comeback and drew major attention. It was her first major interview in years after a long period out of the spotlight amid rumors and speculation about her personal life. In the two-part special, which Winfrey still considers one of her most powerful interviews, Houston spoke candidly about her troubled marriage to Bobby Brown, her relationship with fame, and heavy drug use during her career, while expressing hope that she could rebuild her life.
Houston’s album I Look to You became a major success, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard 200, but it later became her final studio album. Houston died in February 2012 at age 48, after drowning in a bathtub at a Beverly Hills hotel. An autopsy found that heart disease and cocaine use were major factors in her death. Houston’s associates responded that she did fall from the stage, but said it happened because the studio was dark and she was unfamiliar with the set, not because she was under the influence of drugs.
