Television September 10, 2009
Whitney Houston's Rehab Drama
Songstress Whitney Houston laid out the whole sordid tale of her recovery in the upcoming sit-down with Oprah, where the diva opened up about the day her mother forced her into rehab... and saved her life.
The singer described how her mother, singer Cissy Houston, presented her daughter with an ultimatum to get clean. "One day, my mother came to my house, she walks in with these sheriffs," Houston tells Winfrey. "She says, 'I have a court injunction here. You're either gonna do it my way or not gonna do it at all. We're both gonna go on TV and you're gonna retire. This is not worth it.'"
Whitney revealed that Cissy's intervention also scared her ex, Bobby Brown, into submission. "Cissy said, 'If you move Bobby, they're gonna take you down. Don't make one move!' He stood there like he was scared. She said, 'Let's go. Let's do this.'"
Oprah tells "Extra" that Whitney's candid revelations shocked her -- especially since Houston was not as forthcoming in a prior interview. "The last interview she'd done was with Diane Sawyer seven years ago. She was clearly not ready to tell us anything, and was just sort of playing around with her denial, I guess."
The talk queen added, "It's really rare to get anybody who's that famous to be as honest as she was." Houston's longtime mentor Clive Davis agrees, telling "Extra," "I've known Whitney since she was 18 years old. I learned about Whitney... things that I had never known. She knew she had to speak from the heart."
