‘First major’ Whitney Houston biography details rocky Robyn Crawford romance
Robyn Crawford and Whitney Houston were romantically connected. (Dave Hogan/Getty)
Whitney Houston‘s rocky romance with female friend Robyn Crawford is a subject explored in what is described as the “first major” biography of the late icon.
The book, Holding Lightning: The Life, Loves and Art of Whitney Houston, is written by academic and journalist Emily Lordi. Lordi wrote the book after four years of speaking with numerous people from Houston’s life, including close friends, bandmates and neighbours.
While Whitney Houston’s sexuality has long been a point of speculation, with her close friend Robyn Crawford writing of their romance in her 2019 memoir A Song For You: My Life with Whitney Houston.
Now, Lordi’s book explores that relationship once more.
As reported by The Telegraph, Lordi writes that Houston and Crawford met as teenagers and stuck close together for years after that.
The women were reportedly at Houston’s cousin’s flat, with the singer smoking marijuana and reading the bible, before they had sex for the first time.
Lordi writes that the physical side of their relationship didn’t last, suggesting that Houston may have been mindful of her promising career.
Houston reportedly gave Crawford a Bible with “promises to love each other unconditionally” written on the back pages.
Lordi writes that they did do that for the most part, even living together for a number of years.
Crawford also travelled with Houston on tours, with the singer’s saxophonist, Kirk Whalum, saying Crawford often greeted musicians with a hug and a kiss on the lips.
It’s claimed that Houston was furious when Crawford started to date a backing dancer, firing the dancer from her troupe. She also allegedly ripped up the Bible pages she had given Crawford.
Whitney Houston went on to marry singer Bobby Brown in July 1992. They welcomed daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown in March 1993. They divorced in 2007.
Houston died on 11 February, 2012 after accidentally drowning in a bathtub, with the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office also listing the “effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use”.
Her daughter died in July 2015 at the age of 22, after being found facedown in a bathtub by her husband. She was placed in an induced comae and died on 26 July in hospice care. She was found to have marijuana, alcohol, cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine, anxiety medication and morphine in her system, which were found to have contributed to her death.
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