There has always been speculation that Robyn Crawford, Whitney Houston’s longtime best friend was also, at one time, her girlfriend. After all these years, Crawford is finally speaking out about her relationship with the icon.
Her memoir, A Song For You: My Life with Whitney Houston, is set to be released next week, but an excerpt obtained by People confirms that the two were together before Houston became a superstar.
“We wanted to be together, and that meant just us,” Crawford wrote.
The two met as counselors at a summer camp in 1980, and by 1982, the physical part of their relationship was over. Crawford said Houston is the one who broke it off, giving her a gift of a Bible along with the news.
“She said we shouldn’t be physical anymore, because that would make our journey even more difficult,” she shared. “She said if people find out about us, they would use this against us, and back in the ‘80s that’s how it felt.”
People’s excerpt of Crawford’s memoir also shows her touching on the subject of Houston’s mother — who famously went on Oprah after her daughter’s death to promote her own book and said she would have had a problem with Whitney being gay.
While Crawford confirms that Houston’s mother that it “wasn’t natural for two women to be that close,” in a recent interview, the elder Houston seems to have become a little more accepting of the LGBTQ community.
Crawford’s memoir will lay to rest speculation that has gone on for so many years, even while Houston was still alive, and it sounds likely it will do it in a way that will truly honor the late icon, rather than just be cheap tabloid fodder.
“Whitney knows I loved her and I know she loved me,” Crawford said. “We really meant everything to each other. We vowed to stand by each other.”
A Song For You: My Life with Whitney Houston hits shelves on November 12.
