Throughout the two decades that followed, Crawford’s relationship with the singer was in the limelight. Some people questioned their closeness as being more than that of a friendship, but Houston regularly tamped down romance rumors in interviews.
Since the singer’s death in 2012, the rumors persisted, and were mentioned in the 2017 documentary Whitney: Can I Be Me as well as 2018’s docWhitney— but Crawford herself did not address speculation andavoided involvement in the productions.
It wasn’t until she publishedA Song for You: My Life with Whitney Houston, her 2019 memoir, that she chronicled her relationship with the superstar from her own perspective — andconfirmed that the two had been romantic at one point.
Now, their love affair is being recounted in Kasi Lemmons' biopic,I Wanna Dance with Somebody, starringNaomi Ackieas Houston and Nafessa Williams as Crawford. “I really approached this carefully and I want [her] to know that I just wanted to represent her in the best light,” Williams, who has not met Crawford,told GLAAD.
From friends before fame to their relationship throughout stardom, here’s everything to know about Houston’s confidante Crawford.
She was friends with Whitney long before fame
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While the world was introduced to Houston when she released her debut album in 1985,Crawford was introduced to the singerin 1980 at a New Jersey summer camp where they were both counselors. (Crawford was 19 and Houston was almost 17 when they met.)
“I was 16 and we were working at summer jobs and I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this is really going to be a trip this summer — I don’t have any friends’,” Whitney recalled in an interview that surfaced in the documentary Whitney.
Her physical relationship with Whitney ended when the singer signed a record deal
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Crawford opened up in her 2019 memoir about her physical and emotional relationship with Houston, explaining that their intimacy was more than skin deep. “You could tell Whitney and I were tight,” Crawford wrote inA Song for You. “It wasn’t all about our sleeping together.”
She continued: “We could be naked. We could be bare and didn’t have to hide. We could trust each other with our secrets, our feelings, and who we were. We were friends. We were lovers. We were everything to each other.”
“She said we shouldn’t be physical anymore,” wrote Crawford, “because it would make our journey even more difficult … She said if people find out about us, they would use this against us. And back in the ’80s, that’s how it felt.”
Courtesy of The Estate of Whitney E. Houston
The 2019Whitneydocumentary delved into the strained dynamic between Houston’s family and Crawford, suggesting thatthere was animosity towards Crawfordthat might have been based in homophobia, jealousy, or both.
Furthermore, Crawford shared in her memoir that Houston’s mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston,put pressure on their romance. “Whitney told me her mother said it wasn’t natural for two women to be that close,” she wrote, “but wewerethat close.”
Her romantic relationship with Whitney waned as the singer’s fame grew
Despite exiting as Houston’s right hand,Crawford stood true to their vow, which was in part the reason why she wrote the memoir. “I wanted to lift her legacy, give her respect and share the story of who she was before the fame, and in that, to embrace our friendship,” she wrote.
She was Whitney Houston’s maid of honor
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“I saw and heard him speak to her in ways that were demeaning, and [he] talked down to her,” wrote Crawford — claimingher friend became further isolatedand her drug use escalated. “They didn’t talk for years,” Whitney’s ex-sister-in-law Donna Houston shared in the 2019Whitneydoc.
She’s married and has kids of her own
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Today, Crawford resides in New Jersey and is married to wife Lisa Hintelmann, with whom she shares two children. She’s aNew York Timesbest-selling author, notable for her tell-all memoir,A Song for You. Since it was published, Crawford has spoken on talk shows and in interviews about her 20-year relationship with Houston, something she was never able to do while Houston was alive.
source: people.com
