Celebrity News June 23, 2026
Oprah Winfrey Recalls Begging Audience to Keep Whitney Houston’s Stage Fall Secret
Getty Images
On Tuesday, Oprah Winfrey was honored with the prestigious LionHeart award at the Lumière Theatre at Cannes.
While being recognized for her efforts to drive positive change in the world, Oprah reflected on building an all-girl school in Africa, her friendship with Maya Angelou and even shared a story about the last time that Whitney Houston appeared on her show.
In 2009, Oprah interviewed Whitney for the last time while the singer promoted her album “I Look to You.”
In a video posted by Variety, she recalled, "We did the whole, ‘Hey, girl, how you doing?’ greeting thing and then I stopped the cameras and I went behind stage and I said, ‘So, tell me, what do you want to happen here? And I’m gonna tell you what I want to happen here.’ And that was one of the most powerful interviews.”
In the no-holds-barred interview, which took place three years before her death at 48, Houston opened up about her drug use, her marriage to Bobby Brown, and her career.
After the interview, Houston came back on Oprah’s show to perform songs from her final album, but suffered a mishap onstage that was kept secret until now.
Winfrey revealed, "I had such trust from ‘The Oprah Show’ audience… I think it was [Houston’s] last show with us, and she had gone back on drugs. The first interview I did with her when we’d gone behind stage and I asked her about her intention, she was clean, but the day she came to my show then to perform in front of the audience, she was not, and she fell off of the stage.”
Due to her pristine reputation and positive relationship with her audience, who had cell phone cameras, Oprah felt comfortable asking them to keep any footage they had caught secret.
Oprah explained, "I knew that if that story got out… she would be destroyed by that. And so, even though the audience was there and the audience had cameras, I begged them not to put those pictures out because it would ruin her life, and they did not. That would not happen today, I can tell you that.”
That’s the power of Oprah!
“Extra” goes way back with Oprah, check out our most memorable moments with the media mogul!
