For anyone interested in scandal, celebrity gossip or Whitney Houston…stop what you’re doing right now. Robin Crawford, Houston’s longtime lesbian lover, will release a tell-all memoir this November.
A Song For You will feature the reclusive Crawford’s account of her longtime friendship with Houston which began when the pair met at a New Jersey high school. Publisher Random House bills the memoir as “Finally, the person who knew her best sets the record straight.”
Fans and observers have long speculated about the nature of Crawford and Houston’s relationship. Though both denied any romantic involvement with one another, a gaggle of high-profile friends and associates–including Houston’s husband Bobby Brown, her agent Nicole David, and friend Rosie O’Donnell–have labeled Houston as bisexual, and said she and Crawford had a long love affair.
Related: New Whitney Houston doc confirms gay icon’s intense lesbian romances
Two recent documentaries, Whitney and Whitney: Can I Be Me, have both attested to the Crawford-Houston relationship, though it is significant that Robin Crawford declined to participate in either film. Today, she lives in New Jersey with her wife and children.
The daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston, Whitney exploded onto the pop music scene with her self-titled 1985 album. She continued to have a thriving music career, one which elevated with the release of the film The Bodyguard in which Houston acted and provided music for the soundtrack. Through it all Houston also battled tabloid headlines attacking her marriage to singer Bobby Brown, and alleging heavy drug use. She died in 2012.
Brian
I would definitely read this
Imjustsaying
The closet kills souls.
Donston
While Houston was likely on the spectrum/inherently bi, it doesn’t seem as if she was very gay and homo-romantic from most people’s accounts. It honestly seems as if she kinda used Robin for some here and there hook-ups but even more so as emotional support when her male partners (primarily Bobby) let her down. And there haven’t been any rumors of her being romantically linked with any other females. However, who know the dimensions of Houston’s orientation or how her life would have turned out had she not been so consumed by public image, fame, the constant striving for success and of course hadn’t got caught up in drug abuse. It would be interesting if Robin’s perspective of things alters the general perspective of things. But we’ve been so saturated with Whitney/Bobby Brown projects over the last several years. I’m kinda over it.
Kangol
Nah, I think this is quite different from the reality that Whitney and Robyn were very close and had a long-term romantic relationship, as Robyn is going to attest and as many friends and people in Newark, NYC and so on also would affirm, but because of her recording career and her mother’s strong views about homosexuality, she had to keep things hidden. Even Bobby Brown knew that Whitney was a bi and in an extended relationship with Whitney. Also, there were rumors for years of Whitney hanging with other lesbians and bi-women like Kelly McGillis and Irene Cara, and even an alleged confrontation over/involving Cara. If you can, search for the clip of Whitney on the Byron Allen show, where she’s really butch and clearly a lesbian. It’s at the start of her career, before Clive Davis totally glammed her up. I wish she could have lived in all her freedom. She had an amazing gift.
Donston
I have no doubt that she was inherently bi and she was naturally more on the masculine side. I think most people are well aware of that by now. What I do question is just how much of her relationship with Robin was long-term romantic and sexual affections and connection and general control rather than being about occasional hook-ups and general support. Neither of the two big documentaries on Whitney’s life even suggested that she really wanted to be with Robin or any female for that matter. I do think non hetero behaviors and orientations are exploited by pop culture and for the sake of politics a bit too much. It’s always been treated as sensationalism by straight and heterosexual people, and it’s starting to be treated as some “they belonged to us” by homo/gay/bi/queer/pan/whatever people. Some have already come to the conclusion that Whitney’s demise was mostly driven by her desire to be with a female but knowing that due to her image, fame, mother and religious beliefs she couldn’t. I just don’t buy that. Her issues and trauma was clearly fairly complicated, and I’m not sure how much of that was about wanting to be with female.
However, I am somewhat intrigued by Robin’s perspective.
Itsonlythetruth
Selling her soul to the devil for some money and 15 minutes of fame.
SnakeyJ
@Kangol I found that clip and yes she’s very butch. She also seems super high. Hard to watch.
JackKirby
Was Robyn around during Whitney’s drug years? From one doc I watched, she seemed to be Whitney’s grounding factor.