Feeling like a princess // Whitney Houston's new life
USA Today
May 5, 1992

Author: Ann Trebbe

Abstract:

``Let's say I did have a miscarriage - that's my business. You know what I'm saying? It just so happened to have happened, if I was doing a movie, on a movie set. People get word and people call up the papers, I guess, and say it. But it was really something like that, that would happen, is a very normal situation. It happens to women all the time. It's just that I'm this person. [Whitney Houston]. She's like us. I guess, she miscarriages too. But when I'm ready to talk about it, I will. I'll straighten it all out. The way it's looking now it's such a sensationalized situation and it was a very simple one. It's not all that dramatic. So I'd rather not deal with it now. I'll deal with it at another time.''

Ask her longtime friend and executive assistant Robyn Crawford to finish the sentence `Whitney Houston is ...' and she says, ``Whitney Houston is ... precious.''

Copyright USA Today Information Network May 5, 1992

FORT LEE, N.J. - Whitney Houston is a princess in a seemingly perfect fairy tale.

At 28, she has put seven consecutive hits at No. 1, topping the Beatles. Her three albums have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. Although her last tour was reported to be disappointing, she has won two Grammys, 11 American Music Awards, three People's Choice citations and loads of other kudos.

On Wednesday, her first hourlong special, Whitney Houston: This Is My Life, airs on ABC (10 p.m. EDT/PDT). In the fall, she makes her acting debut in The Bodyguard, opposite the king of movies: Kevin Costner.

And, she's found her Prince Charming: She's happily engaged to singer Bobby Brown.

``I don't really have much to complain about,'' Houston says, flashing a dazzling smile and throwing her leg over the arm of an easy chair in her father's office here.

``I was raised to be self-sustaining. I wasn't really raised to be a housewife-cook, although that was very important and my mom made me do a lot of the work. That just wasn't appealing to me.'' She stops, giggles and crinkles up her nose, very princess-like, at the thought of getting her pretty, slender hands dirty.

It's hard to imagine her, with her untied sparkling white high top tennis shoes, her crisp jeans and starched white shirt, getting mussed. Ever.

Ask her longtime friend and executive assistant Robyn Crawford to finish the sentence `Whitney Houston is ...' and she says, ``Whitney Houston is ... precious.''

A solid upbringing, an unswerving faith in God, and a gift for music have been the driving forces shaping her, Houston's saying, that leg jiggling a little nervously.

Independence, she explains, has always been important to her. That's why, at age 13, she stamped her foot and announced she was never going to marry. ``I just knew that whatever I wanted to do with my life, marriage wasn't going to be a part of that for a long time.''

The joy and adoration she felt when she opened her mouth to sing was fulfillment enough. Achieving superstardom that way has allowed her now to feel ready to tie the knot.

``I think once she's married she'll feel a lot more complete,'' says Crawford. ``I think that'll be a self phase where she'll be doing something for her life,'' not just for her public image.

July 18 is the reported wedding date, but Houston won't confirm that, saying only that the wedding is ``going to be.'' The media are on the trail enough as it is, she says.

Like those rumors of a lesbian relationship - especially with Crawford - that have followed her for years. Houston has always said, ``I'm not gay.''

Her recent reported romance with football player Randall Cunningham was ``not true,'' she says. ``We're friends! It was nothing intimate. Nothing romantic. Everybody wants to put me with somebody, you know.''

The somebody she IS with - Brown. She and ``B,'' as she calls him, are friends, too. ``We were instant friends,'' she says, adding, they ``didn't get romantically involved for two years.''

Despite making music together, they've sung together only ``in the shower,'' she says. But they team for a song on his next album, due in June. ``It's called We Have Something in Common,'' she says. It's about how ``we feel about each other as a man and a woman. It's got a great beat and it's up and alive.''

The lovey-dovey couple is seen cuddling on her special. A Truth or Dare- ish undertaking, the special features interview outtakes and concert footage interspersed with backstage peeks, including Madonna-esque prayer circles with Houston.

``I think it's the real Whitney to a point,'' says her mother, Cissy. ``There's a real grown-up side, and there's a very kid side she shows most of the time. But she's a human being - if you push the wrong button she can be something else.''

Part of the special takes scenes from the set of The Bodyguard, on which she sings four of the songs on the soundtrack. The movie is scheduled for release in November.

``There is just an abundance of talent in this woman,'' says Costner on the show. ``This is a world-class woman.''

The movie calls for the two to fall in love and Houston figures an issue will be made of it.

``If you want to make an issue, go ahead,'' Houston says. ``It's not an issue. ... There are love scenes and we do become intimate, but more than that it's about a relationship that develops into a friendship between this man and this woman.''

Her take on Costner: ``He's really just like a home boy, you know? I worked with Kevin Costner the producer, the actor, the director - when he could be. That's the person I got to know. The friend. The man.''

Don't read anything more into it.

``What evolved was a great friendship and nothing more,'' she says. ``He's a married man and I'm about to be married.''

Other tabloid news from the set was that Houston had suffered a miscarriage midway through the filming.

``I would rather not talk about my personal life,'' she says, and continues, ``but what I will tell you is they will take something as personal ...'' she trails off and starts again.

``Let's say I did have a miscarriage - that's my business. You know what I'm saying? It just so happened to have happened, if I was doing a movie, on a movie set. People get word and people call up the papers, I guess, and say it. But it was really something like that, that would happen, is a very normal situation. It happens to women all the time. It's just that I'm this person. Whitney Houston. She's like us. I guess, she miscarriages too. But when I'm ready to talk about it, I will. I'll straighten it all out. The way it's looking now it's such a sensationalized situation and it was a very simple one. It's not all that dramatic. So I'd rather not deal with it now. I'll deal with it at another time.''

She's trying to be nice. She doesn't want to talk about it. But she's a street-smart girl who was brought up to be polite.

``You'd think, I'm eight years into this thing, man, this should be cool. No way. You read about yourself, about something, and kinda go `Wow, that really happened to me.' ''

She and Brown do want a family. ``Bobby wants to have a lot of kids.'' She'd be happy with a family of four. ``Five would be a definite mistake. Uh OH, no, I'm only kidding. I love kids. Kids have a way of bringing purity back to life.''

Happily ever after for Houston? ``This is it.''

 

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