12:47 am, March 12th, 2012
VIDEOS
(OWN)
Oprah sat down with members of Whitney Houston’s family for her “Oprah’s Next Chapter” special on OWN Sunday night.
Houston’s daughter Bobbi Kristina, older brother Gary, and sister-in-law/manager Patricia Houston all shared emotional moments and remembrances of the late singer and her final days – and Gossip Cop has the highlights.
Bobbi Kristina told Oprah, “I’m doing as good as I possibly can,” and that she’s getting through the difficult time, thanks to “my family and the Lord,” as well as visions of her mom.
“I can hear her voice and spirit,” said the singer’s daughter, adding she can still hear her mom say, “I’m right here. I got you.”
“I can always feel her with me,” said Bobbi Kristina, who shared, “She wasn’t only a mother. She was a best friend.”
On Houston’s last day alive, said her daughter, “I slept in her arms all night and all day long.”
The singer’s only child also told Oprah she’s going to carry on her mom’s legacy professionally.
“We’re going to do the singing, the acting thing, the dancing.”
Next up was Patricia – Houston’s sister-in-law, manager, and best friend.
Patricia revealed that Houston’s issues with drugs began in the late 1990s, but doesn’t believe Bobby Brown was to blame.
“I can’t say he introduced drugs to her,” said Patricia, who recalled how the Houston and Brown families had a sort of intervention around 2003 or 2004.
“We were always trying [to help], but the choice was theirs, was hers,” felt Patricia, noting, “The writing was on the wall.”
But Houston’s closest confidante told Oprah drugs didn’t bring about the singer’s end.
“It wasn’t about substance abuse,” said Patricia. “I saw her chasing a dream. Looking for love in all the wrong places… The dream she was chasing was younger… She was chasing something that would ultimately hurt her.”
And about Bobbi Kristina, Houston’s sister-in-law explained, “She loved that girl with everything she had.”
Then, it came time for Patricia to talk about seeing Houston for the very last time, and how the performer was discovered naked in her hotel room’s tub face down.
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Houston was supposed to be getting ready for mentor Clive Davis’ Grammy party and a photo shoot when her assistant Mary found her.
Patricia was en route at the time anyway to meet up with Houston.
As she walked down the hotel’s hallway, “I heard a scream, and I saw the hairstylist drop to her knees and I kept walking very slow… I was just numb… As I got closer and I turned the corner, Mary’s at the door and she’s screaming, ‘Oh My God.’”
Patricia’s brother Ray, who provided Houston’s security, was “trying to revive her to the point of exhaustion.”
At a certain point, Patricia told Ray, “Let it go.”
“He said I tried… I felt so badly for him,” Houston’s best friend told Oprah, before noting, “And then I see her… She had a peaceful look on her face.”
The paramedics then came, “and I saw them cover her up,” Patricia painfully recalled, “and I knew that that was it.”
And though it’s “extremely surreal even to this day” for Patricia, and she misses “the laughter, the sweetness about her,” Houston’s manager/sister-in-law told Oprah: “I know she’s at peace… There are no more struggles… God’s got it. She’s has the ultimate protector.”
Whitney Houston’s older brother Gary then joined his wife Patricia and the talk show host.
He says, “I never thought anything like this would happen,” adding, “It always crosses your mind but you never think it can happen to someone you love.”
Gary, who misses singing onstage with his little sister, told Oprah how hard it is for his mom Cissy.
“She lost her only daughter… It’s rough for her,” he said.
Talk then turned to the awful casket photo the National Enquirer published on its cover.
“I felt very violated,” said Gary, who called it “very intrusive, very wicked.”
Eerily, Houston’s older brother related how his mother had a feeling the singer’s days were numbered.
Gary recalled that two months ago Cissy said, “She’s not going be with us too long. She’s an angel. She’s a gift.”
For more, check out the videos below.
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WATCH:
Patricia on Whitney’s Death
Patricia on Whitney’s Relationship with Bobby Brown
