Whitney Houston ‘s best friend, Robyn Crawford, has broken her silence about her relationship with the superstar singer in new a memoir, titled A Song For You: My Life with Whitney Houston, where Crawford claims to have had a romantic affair with the Grammy award-winning artist.
Crawford, who met Houston when the two worked together as counselors at a summer camp in New Jersey at 16 years old, explained her reasons for coming forward with her story seven years after the singer’s death.
“I’d come to the point where I felt the need to stand up for our friendship. And I felt an urgency to stand up and share the woman behind the incredible talent,” Crawford said in an excerpt from the book published by People Magazine.
Crawford alleges that she and Houston began a physical relationship early on in their union, but Houston squashed their romance from moving forward after she was signed to a contract by Clive Davis at Arista Records.
“She said we shouldn’t be physical anymore,” Crawford said. “Because it would make our journey even more difficult. She said if people find out about us, they would use this against us and back in the ’80s that’s how it felt.”
Crawford opened up in an interview with The Today Show ‘s Craig Melvin about her deep friendship with the Grammy award-winning singer, revealing that no one knew about what she claims was the intimate part of the duo’s relationship.
Houston and Crawford remained close even as the singer became involved with and married to R&B star Bobby Brown .
In 2017, in a documentary titled Whitney: Can I Be Me , friends and family members alleged that the singer’s downward spiral into drug addiction came after Crawford left her role as a confidant in the singers’ day-to-day life. This shift came after claims of an altercation between Crawford and Houston’s then-husband at the end of her 1999 “My Love Is Your Love” world tour, reported People Magazine .
Her marriage to Brown ended in 2007 after 15 years of marriage and one daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown.
Houston’s mother, Cissy Houston, also spoke about her daughter and Crawford’s relationship in her own memoir, titled Remembering Whitney , alleging that she didn’t want her daughter involved with Crawford and said she “knew nothing about a romantic relationship,” per People .
A special episode of Dateline titled “A Song for Whitney” will air on Saturday evening, November 9. This will precede a sit-down interview with Crawford that will take place on The Today Show on Monday, November 11.
A Song For You: My Life with Whitney Houston will be released on November 12.