Patricia Houston, Whitney Houston’ sister-in-law, has spoken about the moment she found the singer dead in her hotel room on February 11 during her interview with Oprah Winfrey on Oprah’s Next Chapter.
Speaking to Oprah Winfrey in her first TV interview since Whitney passed Patricia Houston recounted the events of that fateful day.
Pat Houston explained how Whitney had eaten lunch in her hotel room at the Beverly Hilton and she was returning from running an errand when she went to go and see the singer in her room.
Patricia Houston explained: “I headed down the hallway I heard screaming.
“I was going to her room she had been asking for me she had called my phone twice and I was going to see her.
“I headed down the hallway to her room and I heard screams and I saw the hairstylist (Mary) drop to her knees and I kept walking very slowly a woman opened her door.
“I saw the makeup artist drop to her knees and I knew something was wrong I was just numb I walked I told her to dial 911.”
At this point both Patricia Houston and Oprah Winfrey broke down in tears at the emotional story.
After regaining her composure Patricia Houston continued: “I got close and I turn the corner Mary was at the door and she is screaming <<Oh my god>> I told her to stop and I said <<calm down>>.
“When I got into the room I saw Ray [security guard] trying to revive her to the point of exhaustion. I said <<Ray>>, the paramedics were coming in at that point, I said <<Ray let it go>>.
“He said <<I tried>> he was so out of breath I felt so badly for him.”
Patricia Houston said Whitney was in the bathtub and had a peaceful look on her face.
Whitney Houston’ sister-in-law explained: “She was in the tub – I don’t know how she got there. They had to pull her out of the tub and were trying to revive her.”
Patricia Houston, who was not only Whitney’s friend but also her manager, said the paramedics asked her to leave.
She said: “I couldn’t leave her and I said don’t touch me please and I saw them cover her up and I knew that that was it. I knew that was it. Just looking at her and watching that I still could not believe it I could not believe it.”
While all this was going on Whitney Houston’s daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown was also at the hotel and was in fact sitting on the balcony of her own hotel room down the hall.
Oprah Winfrey made sure she got the details of that day clear and said: “Mary found her and Mary called Ray who was across the hall and you were the next person in that room?”
Patricia Houston replied: “I believe so yes.”
Describing her relationship with Whitney, Patricia Houston said: “There was a spiritual connection.”
She also said that she felt Whitney Houston’s spirit was still with her and speaking to her – something Whitney’s daughter Bobbi Kristina had spoken of earlier.
Patricia Houston said: “Her spirit is so strong she is always telling me <<I got you I got your back.>>”
Later in the interview Patricia Houston also said that she always feared drugs would end the singer’s life.
Patricia Houston also said she was “kidding herself” to say that she hadn’t worried about the tragic singer’s lifestyle over the years.
Speaking for the first time to Oprah Winfrey, Patricia Houston, who is married to Whitney’s brother Gary, was asked if she thought drugs would end up “taking” Whitney Houston. The “handwriting was kind of on the wall”, she replied.
Whitney was changing how she lived, Patricia Houston said, and “it wasn’t about substance abuse or anything like that relative to the … latter days or anything like that”.
“It was just more of a lifestyle. I was afraid for other things,” Patricia Houston added.
“I saw her chasing a dream, you know, looking for love in all the wrong places.”
Whitney Houston was found unresponsive in a Beverly Hilton hotel room in LA on February 11. The exact cause of death is yet to be confirmed, as toxicology results are still pending.
“Were you always afraid of that day, February 11, showing up in your life?” Oprah Winfrey asked Patricia Houston.
“Were you always afraid of getting a phone call or hearing that this is the day that it’s happened?”
“If things hadn’t changed. But things had, were, changing,” Patricia Houston responded.
“Things were really changing with her. Very much so. … I was afraid for other things.”
Patricia Houston also spoke about the Thursday night before the singer’s death when she Bobbi Kristina and Whitney attended a party together.
At the pre-Grammy event Whitney Houston was said to have had a fight with former American Idol contestant Stacy Francis.
Patricia Houston said she went to the event as “sister protector” and saw Whitney and Stacy exchange angry words but said there was no violence.
Oprah Winfrey also spoke to Whitney Houston’s brother and Patricia’s husband Gary who said he never thought he would have received a call saying his younger sister was dead.
Gary Houston said: “Not this soon I never thought anything like this would happen.”
He also outlined that Whitney Houston’s husband Bobby Brown had been welcome at the funeral and contrary to reports the singer’s family had never not wanted him there – but he said he didn’t know what happened at the funeral, Bobby was said to have stormed out over a seating issue.
Oprah Winfrey asked the couple if either of them had spoken to him.
Patricia Houston said: “He reached out to me a couple of days after the funeral.”
She said Bobby Brown asked after Bobbi Kristina and she said: “I told him she was OK.”
When asked if Bobby Brown and Bobbi Kristina have a relationship, Patricia Houston said she didn’t really know but added that “their last meeting in California was sweet”.
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