Oprah Winfrey Recounts Whitney Houston Stage Fall, Houston Estate Denies Drug Claim

Fourteen years after Whitney Houston’s death, Oprah Winfrey has revealed a story she says she had long kept quiet. Speaking this week at a Cannes conference, Winfrey said Houston appeared on her talk show in 2009 while “so drugged” that she stumbled and fell off the stage during the performance.

Winfrey said her first reaction was to keep the incident inside the studio and out of the press. “I knew that if this story came out, it would destroy her,” she said. According to Winfrey, she pleaded with audience members, who were there with cameras, not to release any footage because it would “ruin her life.” She added, “That would not happen today, I can assure you,” and said she had “a lot of trust from the show’s audience.”

She also said the pre-taped interview she conducted with Houston a few days earlier was filmed when the singer was completely sober, but by the day Houston came to perform in front of the audience, “she was no longer clean, and she fell off the stage.”

Soon after Winfrey’s remarks, Houston’s estate responded on the late singer’s behalf, rejecting the drug allegation. It said Houston did fall, but during a soundcheck, because it was dark and she was unfamiliar with the stage, and that she was “completely not under the influence of drugs.” No footage of the fall was ever released, though it is known that Houston did fall at some point during the visit. Winfrey had previously said the fall was not drug-related. Reporter Roger Friedman later said he was on a 2021 Zoom call with Winfrey and Clive Davis, Houston’s former manager, when Winfrey reiterated, “It was not drugs. She slipped and it scared her, so she took a few moments to collect herself.” Houston died in 2012 at age 48 after drowning in a bathtub in her hotel room.