Whitney Houston’s best friend Robyn Crawford says singer halted intimate relationship, gave her a Bible
Article By Tamia Hall // EEW Magazine // News
Whitney Houston’s best friend Robyn Crawford said she had a romantic and physical relationship with the singer, but it didn’t last—at least the physical part.
After years of rumors, the 58-year-old confirmed that she and the iconic vocalist who struggled with drug use and died in 2012 at age 48 once shared same-sex intimacy.
After signing a record deal with Clive Davis at Arista, Crawford, author of A Song For You: My Life with Whitney Houston, said in her book, according to People Magazine, that Houston gave her a slate blue Bible in 1982 and “said we shouldn’t be physical anymore.”
The reason being, “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. I kept it safe. I found comfort in my silence.”
After being silent for all those years, why is Crawford, the late superstar’s closest confidante and protector, telling all now? She told People Wednesday, “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 she was 19 when she first met a then-16-year-old Houston in 1980 when they were both counselors at an East Orange, New Jersey summer camp. It was there that Crawford told Houston, “I’m going to look out for you,” and she stuck closely by the famous entertainer for two decades as Houston blossomed into a global force.
“We wanted to be together,” Crawford said. “And that meant just us.”
But they would never be together the way Crawford hoped because of Houston’s faith and pressure from Houston’s family, including her mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston.
“Whitney told me her mother said it wasn’t natural for two women to be that close,” she said. “But we were that close.”
Even though Crawford is just now confirming the relationship, the two have been the subject of speculation for a long time, as many tabloids had already labeled them “secret lovers.”
Though there was some truth to those reports, Crawford stopped short of saying Houston was a lesbian. “We never talked about labels, like lesbian or gay,” wrote Crawford in her book. “We just lived our lives and I hoped it could go on that way forever.”
She continued, “Whitney knows I loved her and I know she loved me. We really meant everything to each other. We vowed to stand by each other.”
Crawford has moved on with her life. She is a fitness trainer and quietly lives with her partner, talent agency executive Lisa Hintelmann, and the couple shares two adopted children.
Crawford said her goal is to “lift her legacy, give her respect and share the story of who she was before the fame, and in that, to embrace our friendship.”
