The Grammy Award-winning singer also tells ABC's Diane Sawyer that she's addicted to sex and insists she will stick with hubby Bobby Brown despite a rocky marriage.

"I'm not a person who wants to die," Houston says in the interview, set to air on "Primetime" tonight at 10. "I'm a person who has life and wants to live."

"I don't like to think of myself addicted. I like to think ... I had a bad habit ... which can be broken."

Houston, 39, whose new album, "Just Whitney," hits stores next week, confesses she has been on binges that lasted days on end. "I partied my tail off," she says. "You get to the point where ... the party's over."

"Is it alcohol? Is it marijuana? Is it cocaine? Is it pills?" Sawyer asks.

"It has been at times," Houston replies.

"All?" Sawyer asks.

"At times," Houston says. "Uh-hm."

Houston tells Sawyer she nearly died, although she avoids specifics. "That's as close as I want to be," she says. "It frightened me."

Addicted to love

The platinum-selling songbird tells Sawyer she also is addicted to "making love."

She adds that she was addicted to a "few things" - but insists drugs weren't among them. "It's not easy," she says of her battle to stay straight. "But I'm not going to tell you I'm somebody's junkie. No, I'm not."

Still, Houston never says she's sworn off drugs. "I'm not going to tell you that," she says. "I'm not the strongest every day, but I'm not the weakest, either. And I won't break."

She says prayer will get her through. "I know I'm on the right path," she says. "Jesus loves me. This I know."

Houston apologizes to her fans for skipping or bungling shows, including a bizarre Madison Square Garden event with Michael Jackson where she seemed high on drugs.

And despite rumors about her weight loss, she insists she doesn't suffer from an eating disorder. "I am not sick. Let's get that straight," says Houston. "I've always been a thin girl. I am not going to be fat, ever."

Houston, whose hits include "I Wanna Dance With Somebody," "Greatest Love of All" and "I'm Every Woman," also defends her stormy 10-year marriage with rapper Brown, who also appears.

"Love is where you find it," she says. "And I found it in him. And he found it in me."

"A lot of people, you know, that are married go through worse problems than us," says Brown, 36, who has had several brushes with the law.

He admits using marijuana but insists he smokes pot in moderation to alleviate what he says is bipolar disorder. "It helps me to keep ... a level in my life," he tells Sawyer.

NEWSFILE: 5 DECEMBER 2002