Speaker 1: Hey, fam I'm Jada Pinkett Smith and this is the
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Speaker 1: on Apple podcasts on this Red Table talk. Hey Robbert.
Speaker 1: For twenty years, she was Whitney Houston's closest friend and confidante.
Speaker 1: You're like an urban myth. Now Robin Crawford is breaking
Speaker 1: her silence. This is the conversation I most wanted to do,
Speaker 1: sharing the closely guarded truth about their relationship. We were
Speaker 1: intimate on all levels. The situation was out of control.
Speaker 1: There's always these stories about you and Bobby. Did you
Speaker 1: guys ever have a physical altercation? Now Robin Crawford is
Speaker 1: here at the Red Table to set the record straight
Speaker 1: about her life with the legendary Whitney Houston. Read your
Speaker 1: book and I was in from page one when you
Speaker 1: I don't want to cry when you said it's a
Speaker 1: love letter to Whitney, and that resonated as just so powerful.
Speaker 1: It was so healing from me in so many different ways.
Speaker 1: You know, it's hard to love someone who you know
Speaker 1: has had a legacy at the level that she has
Speaker 1: had and then to lose them under tragic circumstances. Because
Speaker 1: I have a very similar situation. What made you decide
Speaker 1: that the time was now to tell your story in
Speaker 1: regards to your relationship with Withney. Well, first of all,
Speaker 1: let me say that at I had great comfort in
Speaker 1: my silence, but over the years I began to feel
Speaker 1: my silence shake and everything I heard or read it
Speaker 1: wasn't accurate. But when Whitney's daughter Bobby Christina passed, that
Speaker 1: was the first time that I really felt the need
Speaker 1: to ask the question to Whitney, what would you want
Speaker 1: me to do? Yeah? What would you want me to do?
Speaker 1: And that's when I felt the need to stand up,
Speaker 1: you know, to stand up for my friend's legacy, to
Speaker 1: lift it, because it seemed like your role in her
Speaker 1: life was that of a protector, so you had to
Speaker 1: be a warrior with Whitney. What were some of the
Speaker 1: things about and legacy did you felt was being tarnished Whitney?
Speaker 1: I felt a need to share who the person was
Speaker 1: behind the extraordinary talent. That's all I kept hearing. Well,
Speaker 1: she had this, she had that, then she just tossed
Speaker 1: it all the way like she was under so much
Speaker 1: pressure all the time I was there. I felt it
Speaker 1: was necessary to talk about the Whitney that I know,
Speaker 1: who was thoughtful with her generosity. It's my duty to
Speaker 1: do that. You know a lot of times you hear
Speaker 1: stuff about you know, whatever that she had with different artists,
Speaker 1: what have you. And my interaction with Whitney, she was
Speaker 1: just one of the most down the earth, you know, loving.
Speaker 1: She didn't bring any of that to the table all.
Speaker 1: She was just a lot of fun. I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: back a little bit when you guys first met as teenagers.
Speaker 1: You had two women who met each other, who had
Speaker 1: a connection whose intention wasn't necessarily to fall in love.
Speaker 1: We were we just were. Yeah, our friendship was deep,
Speaker 1: We were intimate on all levels. Yeah, there was no
Speaker 1: shame in the physical, absolute moments that we shared. There
Speaker 1: there was no shame. In Robin's book, she describes her
Speaker 1: romantic relationship with Whitney. They bonded immediately and were inseparable.
Speaker 1: Soon they became physical and at a sexual relationship that
Speaker 1: lasted for two years. Whitney and I first met at
Speaker 1: the community Development center where we were summer counselors. I
Speaker 1: was nineteen and she was sixteen. Soon returned seventeen. One
Speaker 1: day after camp, we were just talking. There was something
Speaker 1: there that made us connect, and then at one moment
Speaker 1: we both just met and you know, our mouths touched,
Speaker 1: and that was our first kiss. It was awesome. We
Speaker 1: weren't hiding the physical aspect of our friendship. We weren't
Speaker 1: hiding it, but we knew that. I mean, it was ours,
Speaker 1: it was ours, but Whitney's mom had to love. I
Speaker 1: call it fever about our closeness, and it was like,
Speaker 1: I need Robin here where I'm going. I need someone
Speaker 1: who knows me. Now. What do you think her mother's
Speaker 1: uncomfortability was? I called her Mrs Houston got it. She
Speaker 1: knows how I feel about her. I wrote her a
Speaker 1: note after Whitney passed. Mr Houston knows I loved Whitney
Speaker 1: and Whitney loved me. But I always sensed a bitterness
Speaker 1: and her mom because I thought her daughter is so awesome,
Speaker 1: that there was so much to be joyful about. If anything,
Speaker 1: Whitney would listen to me, and that would bother Mrs Houston.
Speaker 1: But I think the only reason why Whitney listened to
Speaker 1: me is because I listened to her. Just after Whitney
Speaker 1: signed her first record deal, she gave Robbing a Bible
Speaker 1: and told her they could no longer be physically intimate.
Speaker 1: She said, I have something for you, and she placed
Speaker 1: the Bible in my hands. She said, I don't believe
Speaker 1: that we should be physical any longer. That it would
Speaker 1: make our journey much harder if they found out about it.
Speaker 1: But she also said, living that kind of life, you
Speaker 1: could go to hell. Her mom also had told Whitney
Speaker 1: that it was not natural for two women to be
Speaker 1: as close as we were. Even though they ended their
Speaker 1: physical relationship, their emotional connection continued. They used empty pages
Speaker 1: in their Bible to write goodbye love letters to each other.
Speaker 1: We in ribed our loyalty, our dedication, Oh thank you,
Speaker 1: and I care. Is that the actual Bible? Is it? Oh? Wow?
Speaker 1: Wow wow wow wow. So you guys wrote each other,
Speaker 1: we inscribed on the back of the book. Because God
Speaker 1: was there too. I wasn't blindsided by her saying that
Speaker 1: we should not be physical anymore. What she chose her
Speaker 1: path to sing that was a gift that she was
Speaker 1: blessed with, and she wanted to serve and what she
Speaker 1: knew that she had to take that piece, that physical
Speaker 1: piece out so that it would not interfere with because
Speaker 1: of the times interfere with what she knew she was
Speaker 1: born to do. Knowing that she didn't have to lose you.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm, that's powerful sacrifice, Okay, Knowing that she didn't
Speaker 1: have to lose you, that she could still have your strength,
Speaker 1: your friendship, your love, she said, love me unconditional. There
Speaker 1: it is. She was worth that. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: Whitney out there, and she just didn't let a lot
Speaker 1: of people know her. Yeah, And a lot of people
Speaker 1: have a difficult time understanding relationships of that manner because
Speaker 1: everybody thinks the highest grade of of relating is romantic
Speaker 1: and sexual, and it's not. Even when we get into
Speaker 1: lifetime committed relationships, we start to realize those components aren't everything.
Speaker 1: Whitney and Robin continue to feel possessive towards each other.
Speaker 1: Years after they ended their physical relationship, Whitney grew suspicious
Speaker 1: that Robin had slept with a backup dancer and angrily
Speaker 1: confronted her. She was really upset and my bi, but
Speaker 1: I kept it over my bed and she just grabbed
Speaker 1: it and ripped out the back page, and she started
Speaker 1: tearing it up, ripping it a little pieces. Did she
Speaker 1: ever explain why? Whitney wasn't an explainer. She didn't explain things.
Speaker 1: She went right for it and just ripped, just ripped
Speaker 1: it out, and I picked up the pieces and I
Speaker 1: put it in the envelope. Whitney was one of few words,
Speaker 1: although her mouth could go and you could not keep
Speaker 1: up with her. And she loved girl talking like she
Speaker 1: would love this, this red table. She'd be sitting in
Speaker 1: the middle right there. She she would, she would, and
Speaker 1: it would have been great for her to be because
Speaker 1: she needed moments like that, just talking talking. I understood
Speaker 1: because of the complex relationship I've had with Pock and
Speaker 1: those moments of his who's that knowing? Damn well, there
Speaker 1: ain't nothing like that between us. Him feeling like you're
Speaker 1: the only stability I got. I can't afford for you
Speaker 1: to put that attention elsewhere. I need that stability. So
Speaker 1: for him, it was we were an anchor for each other.
Speaker 1: So anytime he felt like that anchor was threatened. Oh
Speaker 1: my god. That's a good point because people will think, oh,
Speaker 1: she was jealous, or that's jealousy. No, it is possessive
Speaker 1: and protective because it's a process. It's a lot of things.
Speaker 1: I didn't understand why I was in it, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. I mean we were young, yes, fearless,
Speaker 1: ready for the world, but we didn't. We couldn't have
Speaker 1: all the forces that were coming at once. It's overwhelming,
Speaker 1: and I don't think people understand that she was a baby.
Speaker 1: We both were. On July, just weeks before twenty ninth birthday,
Speaker 1: Whitney Houston, the biggest pop star on the planet, married
Speaker 1: Bobby Brown, the notorious bad boy of R and B superstar,
Speaker 1: six years her junior. The lavish ceremony included a forty
Speaker 1: dollar gown with custom beaded headpiece, eighteen tier wedding cake,
Speaker 1: and white doves released as the couple sealed their vows
Speaker 1: with a kiss. Robin Ever, the loyal friend, stood by
Speaker 1: his Whitney's maid of honor, A sawt footage of you
Speaker 1: at her wedding day as her maid of honor. Robin.
Speaker 1: When I saw you in that footage, my heart was
Speaker 1: just bleating all in my lap. Thinking back on that wedding,
Speaker 1: it was a crazy day. I bet there were people
Speaker 1: walking around. I mean, you had over eight hundred guests,
Speaker 1: and I was honored to be her maid of honor. Right,
Speaker 1: were you ready for her to be married, having her
Speaker 1: cement her life for the rest of her life with
Speaker 1: someone else. Yeah, if if, if that's what, if that's
Speaker 1: what she wanted, I would be there for her. I
Speaker 1: wanted Whitney to have the life that she wanted for herself,
Speaker 1: her own family. I did. I remember looking in her
Speaker 1: eyes when when you're like face the face, and in
Speaker 1: my mind, she's about to submit her life with what
Speaker 1: someone else, you know, and I hoped that it would
Speaker 1: be fruitful for her. Did you have any feelings about
Speaker 1: her marry and Bobby? She told me she loved him.
Speaker 1: I had heard the rumors about him when she told
Speaker 1: me that he had asked her to marry him, and
Speaker 1: I asked her, when you love him? She said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I do. I love him. And then she asked me,
Speaker 1: and I was not ready for this question, do you
Speaker 1: think he loves me? And I said, honestly, Nip, I
Speaker 1: really don't know him that well. There's always these stories
Speaker 1: about you and Bobby. Did you guys ever have a
Speaker 1: physical altercation? There were no ever last shorts and gloves
Speaker 1: ever he did get my face a couple of times,
Speaker 1: like something foolish, and he never came to me and
Speaker 1: asked me anything about concerning my past with with me.
Speaker 1: I know that when she came back from her honeymoon
Speaker 1: and she had that gash on her face, Yep, did
Speaker 1: you ever explain to you how that got there? I
Speaker 1: asked her. She said, I threw a glass against the
Speaker 1: wall and it shattered and I got cut right. But
Speaker 1: the cut was like from here to there, it's about
Speaker 1: three four inches long. Flying glass doesn't do that. So
Speaker 1: but I never pressed her. I was like, you love
Speaker 1: this man, and it's not right to stand by someone
Speaker 1: and then think ill of it. That wasn't me. But
Speaker 1: the more I saw and heard, and the messier it got,
Speaker 1: I thought she get tired of it. I mean, Whitney
Speaker 1: had a lot of pride and a strong will, But
Speaker 1: every time I thought that would be it, it wasn't.
Speaker 1: As Whitney and Bobby's to Ultra's relationship continued, headlines and
Speaker 1: drama followed. Their marriage went from rocky to explosive. Whitney
Speaker 1: went to surprise Bobby in Atlanta after knocking on his
Speaker 1: door several times. Outcomes Bobby in a rage, saying I
Speaker 1: don't want you here, and he's spit in her face.
Speaker 1: She ran down the hall and Bobby picked up a
Speaker 1: glass and threw it, and Whitney picked up the phone
Speaker 1: to call her father. That's when Bobby snatched the phone
Speaker 1: from her and head over the head with it. I
Speaker 1: still had the keep, and when I would go up
Speaker 1: to the house, they would be in the back in
Speaker 1: her room. I wouldn't see them. I could be up
Speaker 1: there like for hours and I wouldn't see it. He
Speaker 1: had her to himself. She was isolated, but there was
Speaker 1: an aspect of you that thought that she she could
Speaker 1: hand to herself. Oh yeah, Like Whitney did not like
Speaker 1: come intation. But if you backed her up against the wall,
Speaker 1: she let you know. That's how she was, like, you know,
Speaker 1: did I ask you? I think that's an important point.
Speaker 1: When our loved ones pass on because of tragic circumstances,
Speaker 1: sometimes those of us who are left behind, who love
Speaker 1: them people tend to put more responsibility on us than
Speaker 1: remembering that that person made choices. It's a painful thing
Speaker 1: to have to confront that we all make choices that
Speaker 1: get us to certain places, and we look back and go, well,
Speaker 1: if you had done that, if you had stayed, if
Speaker 1: you did it it, maybe things would have been different.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, Whitney there were
Speaker 1: certain choices that she was making, and she lived the
Speaker 1: life of our choices. If you're talking about the self
Speaker 1: abuse or addiction, I believe that Whitney was stuck. She
Speaker 1: didn't like feeling pitiful. I mean, that was a tough
Speaker 1: If you were annoying, she kept you away, got it,
Speaker 1: she want to be bothered with you. After twenty years
Speaker 1: side by side, Robin Crawford made the painful decision to
Speaker 1: stop working with Whitney. After an argument with Whitney and Bobby,
Speaker 1: Robin had had enough. We went out to Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: It was just cancelation after cancelation, the firing at the Oscars,
Speaker 1: and Bobby was traveling with us, and which never makes
Speaker 1: it easy. I went to Fred Segal and I purchased
Speaker 1: George Michael a button down black shirt since we had
Speaker 1: run him around for a while, we had canceled three
Speaker 1: sessions with him. Just a kind gesture and Bobby erupted
Speaker 1: with Bobby screaming in my face at all that stress
Speaker 1: and worry about with me. I was at a breaking point.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just Bobby, there was everything. When you made
Speaker 1: the decision that it was time for you to walk away,
Speaker 1: And I can only I know mm hmm, and know
Speaker 1: the depths of that struggle, you know, having had to
Speaker 1: do what I'm as well. You know, did you have
Speaker 1: any hope then in you making the decision to walk
Speaker 1: away that it would change something? And what do you
Speaker 1: think needed to change in order for you to remain?
Speaker 1: When I made that decision, I never once thought or
Speaker 1: believed that I was leaving with me. Wow, okay, okay.
Speaker 1: I needed her to stop and think about herself and
Speaker 1: look at where we were, and her world looked like
Speaker 1: what it was. So many people she wasn't paying attention.
Speaker 1: The situation was out of control, and I felt like
Speaker 1: I had done all that I could do in the
Speaker 1: current climate of what Nippy Ink was at that time. Now, Robin,
Speaker 1: that's a big clear up right there, because a lot
Speaker 1: of us, and they think a lot of us thought
Speaker 1: you've left for a much different reason that I left
Speaker 1: because of Bobby, And that's that's not true. Bobby was annoying.
Speaker 1: He was very annoying, and you never knew when he
Speaker 1: would just here we go again, and he would get jealous,
Speaker 1: and there was too many people around, and Whitney had
Speaker 1: lost focus. You know the rumor that I gave her
Speaker 1: an ultimatum. You don't give Whitney ultimatum. No, you don't
Speaker 1: do that. And I didn't have to. She knew how
Speaker 1: I felt, and she knew I would tell her. I
Speaker 1: never once believed that she would fall. Wow, swimming is
Speaker 1: what she loved to do. I mean, girl could swim.
Speaker 1: She loved the water. And that's why passing in the
Speaker 1: water just so so crazy, like hard for me to
Speaker 1: wrap my heart and head around. On February eleven, the
Speaker 1: world was heartbroken to discover that Whitney Houston had tragically died.
Speaker 1: It was the day before the Grammys, and Whitney was
Speaker 1: bathing in her hotel room. She slipped under the water.
Speaker 1: The final Corner's report confirmed that Whitney had been a
Speaker 1: victim of an accidental drowning brought on by heart disease
Speaker 1: and longtime cocaine abuse. When Whitney passed, it was I
Speaker 1: was flooded with emotions. I was angry. Yeah, I just
Speaker 1: had to get myself together. It made me sad when
Speaker 1: Whitney passed and you said she should have never been alone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it made me really sad because I was like, there
Speaker 1: was a time she wasn't. You know, she had an
Speaker 1: event right that day, she had the big event, but
Speaker 1: she also had two other on camera things that she
Speaker 1: was doing before that, a whole list of things to do.
Speaker 1: You've got people working for you. Where the hell are
Speaker 1: they after that faithful day? You know, my life was
Speaker 1: filled with strangers walking up to me feeling like had
Speaker 1: I been there, she'd still be here. Of course, that's
Speaker 1: a lot to even pull in, but what I do
Speaker 1: know is that she would not have been alone. It
Speaker 1: pains me that she's not here physically. That's kind of selfish,
Speaker 1: but she and Chrissy have each other. Nearly three years
Speaker 1: to the day of her mother's death, Whitney's only child,
Speaker 1: Bobby Christina Brown, was found unresponsive underwater in a bathtub.
Speaker 1: Just like her mother. She never begainn business and died
Speaker 1: six months later. The manner of death is officially undetermined,
Speaker 1: but the medical examiner found a toxic combination of drugs
Speaker 1: and alcohol in her system. When Chrissie left us, I
Speaker 1: felt for her without her mom, because I had witnessed
Speaker 1: the bond that they shared in the studio on stage.
Speaker 1: She loved that child and that little girl loved her mother.
Speaker 1: So when her mom left, I knew she was lonely,
Speaker 1: but I honestly believed that she would be okay. I
Speaker 1: wanted to believe that her hand was being held. But
Speaker 1: Sylvia Vahar, who was Whitney's personal assistant, she kept calling
Speaker 1: me and she said that little girl needs help. I
Speaker 1: didn't think for one second that you know, I call it,
Speaker 1: you know, let her hand go. Was that message that
Speaker 1: you received. You talk about that in the book where
Speaker 1: she Whitney would call over the years and leave messages.
Speaker 1: This was the wee hours. It was like about close
Speaker 1: to four in the morning. I checked my messages. I
Speaker 1: just heard this voice and I heard my name, and
Speaker 1: it was like robbin in that way that would get
Speaker 1: my attention, right. I thought she'd called back. The numbers restricted,
Speaker 1: it's always restricted. I can't call back. But I wish
Speaker 1: I would have just taking the necessary steps to reach her.
Speaker 1: But I heard that voice and you knew and speaking
Speaker 1: for me. I feel like I was waiting for her
Speaker 1: and she was waiting for me. And time just don't wait.
Speaker 1: I understand that one don't wait. You know, no one
Speaker 1: ever really dies. We keep them with us, the truth.
Speaker 1: I tell people all the time. I'm like, and you
Speaker 1: don't get over it. You just learn how to cope
Speaker 1: without having them here. If you had a chance that
Speaker 1: I could disappear right now and Whitney would take my place,
Speaker 1: and all these cameras were shut off and Mr just
Speaker 1: you and her in the room, what would you want
Speaker 1: to say to her? I would want to say, you
Speaker 1: know that you know I love you and I got you.
Speaker 1: I will represent I love that girl like yesterday, and
Speaker 1: she's with me all the time. I understand. After Robin
Speaker 1: stopped working with Whitney, she married Lisa Hendelman, a publicist
Speaker 1: she met during the body Guard. They have two children.
Speaker 1: Early on, they came to an understanding that when Whitney
Speaker 1: called or showed up at the door, they would welcome her. Hi. Hello.
Speaker 1: I really wanted to have a moment to talk to you,
Speaker 1: because I know when Robin had said to you that
Speaker 1: if Whitney calls, we've got to leave the door open.
Speaker 1: What was it that made you open to that? You know,
Speaker 1: Robin had committed to me um that she was going
Speaker 1: to focus on our life Whitney. When she was still alive,
Speaker 1: people would call, Robin, did you hear that this happened?
Speaker 1: Or did you read the Whitney did this? And you
Speaker 1: know my line was, you know, she goes to the
Speaker 1: bathroom and someone calls you to tell you, and you
Speaker 1: know that was you know, it was frustrating, but I
Speaker 1: knew how important they were to each other. We met
Speaker 1: because of Whitney. Then I also felt for Whitney. I
Speaker 1: felt for her her troubles and her struggles, and I
Speaker 1: firsthand how supportive Robin can be and how strong she
Speaker 1: can be. So I understood that that's what she was
Speaker 1: for Whitney. So if she called, of course we would
Speaker 1: have welcomed her. When Robin first told you that she
Speaker 1: wanted to write this book, what were your thoughts? I
Speaker 1: totally understood and agreed with Robin's desire to kind of
Speaker 1: clear the air of misperceptions and more importantly, to to
Speaker 1: lift with me. And you know, I had I was
Speaker 1: well aware of her greatness and also saddened by how
Speaker 1: people were presenting her, and I really felt that doing
Speaker 1: that might sort of complete things for her and allow
Speaker 1: her to fully, you know, enjoy the rest of her
Speaker 1: life as beautiful and even in my own situation is
Speaker 1: deeply healing. We have a very relatable circumstance and that,
Speaker 1: you know, So this was good for me and it's
Speaker 1: really nice to see the two of you here together
Speaker 1: too and actually feel the connection. So thank you, thank
Speaker 1: you for being here with us. I appreciate that's Red
Speaker 1: Table Table Talk, real talk. Hey r t T family,
Speaker 1: Join our Red Table Talk group on Facebook has become
Speaker 1: part of the conversation and be sure to follow the
Speaker 1: show page to catch up on all our episodes. Yea
Speaker 1: perfect thank you. All right, Hey, I'm here with Robin Crawford.
Speaker 1: We had a beautiful conversation today about her book A
Speaker 1: Song for You My Life with Whitney Houston swife Clock.
Speaker 1: It's a good one to join the Red Table Talk
Speaker 1: family and become a part of the conversation. Follow us
Speaker 1: at Facebook dot com lash red Table Talk. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to this episode of Red Table Talk podcast produced
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