Was Whitney Houston LGBTQ+? Everything that’s been said about the singing legend’s sexuality
Whitney Houston performing at the 2004 World Music Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Kevin Winter/Getty)
If you don’t love Whitney Houston, are you even LGBTQ+? The musical diva’s legacy is an enduring one, and no doubt more than one of us has belted out “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” at a lesbian or gay karaoke night.
During her life, she was always a passionate and outspoken ally to the queer community, but after she tragically passed away on 11 February 2012, aged just 48, new information came to light about her sexuality, which has led to quite a lot of debate in recent years, although rumours of lesbian relationships were denied by Houston.
Here’s everything that’s been said about Whitney Houston’s sexuality, both during her lifetime, and after it.
2009: Whitney Houston’s sister-in-law alleges ‘lesbian flings’
In 2009, Tina Brown claims the artist has had a series of steamy same sex affairs which her brother, Bobby Brown, Houston’s husband, was allegedly aware of.
She told the National Enquirer, “It’s no secret. I’ve seen her with a woman a couple of times. They were walking around without shirts on when I came in the house.
“Bobby would say, ‘She’s with this one and that one’.”
2012: Peter Tatchell claims she was ‘pressured’ into marrying Bobby Brown
Just two days after her untimely death, on 13 February 2012, veteran LGBTQ+ campaigner Peter Tatchell paid tribute to Whitney Houston, writing: “Whitney Houston RIP. She was happiest and at her peak in the 1980s, when she was with her female partner. They were so loved up and joyful together.
“It’s important to tell the truth about this aspect of her life. Colluding with the cover-up of her same-sex relationship is not right.”
Mr Tatchell continued: “I met Whitney and her partner at the Reach Out & Touch HIV rally in London in 1991, organised by Vernal Scott. Whitney spoke very movingly in support of people with HIV, at a time when many other stars kept their distance.
“She was pressured into the Bobby Brown marriage. It was a disaster. Her life started going downhill soon afterwards.
“Perhaps her inability to accept and express her same-sex love contributed to her substance abuse and decline?
“Whitney’s death is a tragic loss of a great vocal talent.”
2017: Biopic claims Houston was bisexual and ‘had secret love affair with best friend’
Whitney: Can I Be Me premiered in 2017 in New York, claiming to reveal more about the late superstar than ever before.
The film added to the rumour that Houston had been dating her best friend and assistant, Robyn Crawford.
“I don’t think she was gay, I think she was bisexual,” stylist Ellin Lavar says in the movie. “Robyn provided a safe place for her… in that Whitney found safety and solace.”
Crawford and Houston met in 1979 as teenagers, at a community centre in East Orange, New Jersey.
Rumours followed the women throughout their careers, including while the singer was married to Bobby Brown.
“Robyn and Whitney were like twins,” security personnel Kevin Ammons said in the movie.
“They were inseparable. They had a bond and Bobby Brown could never remove Robyn. He wanted to be the man in the relationship.”
2019: Whitney Houston’s former partner Robyn Crawford confirms their relationship
Seven years after her death, Robyn Crawford opened up about her intimate relationship with Whitney Houston in a tell-all memoir, A Song For You: My Life with Whitney Houston.
In the book, Crawford said she and Houston had a relationship that spanned many years and continued throughout the singer’s marriage to Bobby Brown.
In November, 2019, Crawford told NBC ahead of the book’s release how their “intimate” relationship developed.
She said: “We were intimate on many levels and all I can say is that is was very deep and we were very connected.
“Our friendship was a deep friendship and in the early part of that friendship it was physical. It was during that first summer that we met, was the first time our lips touched.
“And it wasn’t anything planned, it just happened. And it felt wonderful. And then, not long after that, we spent the night together.
“And that evening was the night that we touched. And that just brought us closer together.”
2021: Rosie O’Donnell says Houston was ‘troubled by the gay part of her life’
In 2021, speaking on the Hot Takes & Deep Dives podcast lesbian comedian Rosie O’Donnell recalled meeting Whitney Houston and Robyn Crawford at a party in New York.
She said that at the time she was aware that Crawford was Houston’s partner, although she was publicly seen as the singer’s friend and assistant. She added: “Whitney was troubled by, I think, the gay part of her life and didn’t want it exposed.”
Discussing Houston’s drug addiction, which eventually led to her death, O’Donnell remembered a time in the late 1990s when she failed to show up for an interview on The Rosie O’Donnell Show.
“She was, at that time, really in a downward spiral with drugs, and it was obvious to anyone who was watching her,” she said.
O’Donnell continued: “She didn’t show up, so I said to her crew, ‘This is all on all of you. Because when she dies, everyone is going to ask why you didn’t do something.’”
Later, she said, Crawford wrote to her “and told me that was a very big day for them – the crew around her – to think that they had to make inroads to try to help her”.
“Sadly, they didn’t,” she said. “Or couldn’t.”
