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Whitney Houston was a fashion model
before becoming a singer, and as a teen appeared on the cover of Glamour.
Houston had seven consecutive #1 hit singles, and has had 23 songs reach
the Top Ten. Her 1993 cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" is
one of the best-selling songs of all time.
Houston's mother, noted R&B singer Cissy Houston, recorded "Midnight Train
to Georgia" years before Gladys Knight & the Pips. Cissy's group the Sweet
Inspirations also sang back-up on many Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley
hits. Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick are Houston's cousins. Her parents
divorced when Whitney was in kindergarten, but her father acted as her
business manager through Houston's rise. He later sued to receive millions
in past due compensation. He died in 2003, and his suit was dismissed in
2004.
For years there have been perpetual whispers of an eating disorder or,
more commonly and obviously, drug addiction. She has been in and out of
rehab repeatedly, to overcome reported addictions to cocaine, marijuana,
and assorted pills. In January 2000, Houston was arrested at an airport
checkpoint after two plastic baggies of marijuana and three partially
smoked joints were found in her luggage. She eventually reached a plea
bargain, and despite missing the court's deadline to submit proof of
passing a substance-abuse evaluation, her record was wiped clean five
months later. Once literally "movie star beautiful" in films like The
Bodyguard and Waiting to Exhale, rare photos of the present-day Houston
are shocking -- in her increasingly rare public appearances, she is
frequently referred as "frightfully emaciated," "skeletal and frail"
"scarily skinny," etc.
In 2002, she told Diane Sawyer, "First of all, let's get one thing
straight. Crack is cheap. I make too much for me to ever smoke crack.
Let's get that straight, okay? We don't do crack. We don't do that. Crack
is wack." In 2003, her husband, singer Bobby Brown, was charged with
battery after an argument with Houston left her with facial injuries. In
2005, she was hospitalized with what was called food poisoning.
Houston and Brown separated in October 2006, and their Georgia mansion and
numerous possessions were subsequently sold to settle long-overdue
mortgage payments and other debts. |
