On July 6, a documentary about Whitney Houston’s life will hit theatres, much to the chagrin of some of the legendary singer’s family members. Early screenings of Whitney have proven to be too raw and have revealed some dark secrets that loved ones would much rather have left unknown to the world.
But sister-in-law and former manager Pat Houston said that director Kevin Macdonald’s job was to make the film, not make the family happy. The truth about Whitney’s life experience was complex and even tragic. Houston believes that the family will come to terms with some of the darker moments in time.
“Well, some of us are happy,” Pat Houston told Vulture at the New York premiere on Wednesday night. “It was a little overbearing for the older ones, but they’re processing it and getting through it.”
Pat Houston has been doing press for the project where she served as an executive producer. In one interview with Sway on his radio show, Sway’s Universe , Houston shared some of the secrets that have made some members of the family cringe.
One of those secrets was that Whitney’s biological brothers, Michael and Gary (Pat’s husband), first introduced her to drugs. She was already smoking weed, but was given cocaine on her 16th birthday. This revelation dispelled the myth that ex-husband Bobby Brown was the one responsible for Whitney’s drug habit.
“It’s my understanding that that was just a way of life in that particular time in Jersey,” Houston told Sway. “They all did it. They all were using drugs. It was just their way of life at that particular time.”
Houston talked more about her brother Michael’s admitted role in Whitney’s addiction on Good Morning America , including his part in keeping the status of her sobriety a secret.
“For him, I guess it was therapeutic to really talk about it. It was like a pressure cooker opening up,” Houston said of Michael. “He was speaking about himself and talking about his sister. He just needed to talk and after sharing his sister with the world for over 30 years — and just having to protect an image — that moment was his. It was kind of a healing process for him as well.”
Houston also shared with Sway the fact that Whitney, Gary, and Michael were all sexually molested by cousin Dee Dee Warwick, sister of iconic singer Dionne Warwick. Discussing the lawsuit that Whitney’s father filed against her, her tumultuous relationship with Bobby Brown, the immense pressure she endured as an international superstar, and her suspected gay relationship with best friend Robyn Crawford, Houston said that Whitney was let down by all the people whom she loved and supported most.