(audience cheering)
(upbeat music)
Welcome back.
You know, Whitney Houston is one
of the biggest superstars the world has ever known,
and our first guest was there to see it all.
Now, after a couple of decades of silence,
she's sharing her story of friendship
and romance in Whitney's,
in her new book.
It's called A Song For You,
My Life With Whitney Houston.
Please welcome for the first time to our show,
our Wendy Exclusive, Robyn Crawford.
(audience cheering)
Hey girl, hey.
(upbeat music)
Hi.
(audience cheering)
Come on, now.
Robyn!
What's up?
(laughing)
I like your shoes.
Oh, thank you.
Shoe cam please, model them.
(audience cheering)
Those are nice, Robyn.
Thank you.
Did you pick those out yourself?
I did, I do that.
Oh.
I heard that your children had a hand in it?
Yes, my son told me to wear black and white laces, so.
Now he's 10?
He's 10.
They're both 10, my daughter's 10.
Yeah, Robyn's got two children and a wife,
and a happy life in the tri-state area.
(audience cheering)
We do.
Robyn and I was telling you,
we already had a conversation on the phone.
Just to say hey and how you doin'?
Uh-huh, how you doin'?
(audience laughing)
How you doin'?
So you met Whitney when you were teens.
How old were you girls?
I had just turned 19
and she was soon to be 17 that summer.
And where did you meet?
We met at the community development center
in East Orange, New Jersey.
That was summer jobs for councilors.
How was Whitney back then?
Like when you first met her?
She was awesome.
She had this presence that was just like...
What's your name?
And she said, "Whitney Elizabeth Houston."
Oh.
That's how she introduced herself.
She big timed you?
With a handle.
With a handle.
Okay.
That's good, I'll keep an eye out for ya.
So then summer camps ends,
and you guys maintain friendship?
We got to know each other.
What does that mean?
Well, like any other.
Two girls.
Yeah.
Being silly.
Two young teenage girls,
working at a summer camp.
You just kind of find out who you're gonna...
By who you gravitate to.
And we had a connection.
We would go out for lunch together,
and we just clicked.
At that time,
Whitney's mother Cissy was big in the gospel community.
Whitney's mother was big
in the background singing community,
that's how Whitney introduced her to me.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, she was the ministress of music
at New Hope Baptist church,
but Whitney took me through every single last artist,
and background vocals where her mother was tearing it up.
And she does tear it up.
In the book, I lay out the tracks for you.
You need to know, Cissy Houston as Whitney put it,
was no joke being paid triple scale.
It was awesome.
(audience applauding)
So, many of us had our first kiss at summer camp.
Did you guys...
First kiss at summer camp?
Well I did yes, Camp Zenger.
Oh, I wasn't doing that.
Well all right, so how did the romance start?
As we got further into knowing each other,
and feeling comfortable,
you know like Whitney was like, "I'm a singer."
I said, "Okay, that's cool."
And then I'd say to her something like,
"Well, where do you sing?"
She said, "Well, at my church,
"New Hope Baptist Church,
"but I also auditioned for The Wiz."
Which Tisha Campbell I think got that part.
Okay.
She's also from East Orange,
if I have that right.
So anyway, we just kept spending time together,
and wanted to be together,
and she'd tell me these amazing stories
about the music business.
And music was huge back then.
You had the album cover with the liner notes,
and we'd sit and go through.
My family was big on music as well.
So, we had a nice see-saw relationship
on who was who in the music business,
and much later that summer she asked me
to walk her to her home and I did.
And we just sat back on her sofa,
on the floor,
and it was just that time.
What time?
A time to just get a little closer.
So we did,
and it was just like that.
Just a little closer,
and it was.
Well now let me ask you,
are you gold star lesbian?
Gold star?
Well, around here they say
that that means you've never been with the opposite sex.
You know what.
Because, you were 19,
so did you know who you were at that time?
In terms of your sexuality?
I was Robyn.
I was Robyn, Janet and Denise's child.
But, in terms of your sexuality?
In terms of my sexuality,
I would say that I was...
I prayed for someone male or female
who would love me for me,
whoever that was at that time.
Okay.
So you were open?
(audience applauding)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
And then you and Whitney eventually got closer,
and you had a physical relationship.
We saw it play out in the movie
and stuff like that.
Did you see the movie?
I liked the movie.
Oh, there she goes, there she goes.
(laughing)
Go ahead, by the way I like your pin,
I like a bumblebee pin.
My bumblebee, yeah.
I need my bumbles with me.
I got my calvary,
but I need my bumbles with me.
Yeah, so then you became physical,
and how did that end though?
Why did it end?
You know, I wanna say this,
we have a friendship, a beautiful friendship.
If you could have one person in this life
that you could look at and communicate,
which we could.
We learned how to communicate without talking.
You needed that in the music business.
Or the entertainment world.
But, we were so...
Our friendship was so deep,
that we wanted to touch each other,
and we did one night,
and it was everything.
Oh, okay.
And we knew then that that everything
was not all that would be.
Yeah, sex is only a part of a relationship.
Sex, you know what...
Or touching,
only a part of a relationship.
It was just embracing everything
that we had shared.
And it was our moment,
no one else was there,
but maybe the creator.
Wait, at this point had she signed with Arista Records,
so she was on her way to being a pop star?
It was around the time that she had signed.
It may have been right after that,
not long after that.
But, she had signed her deal, yes.
And.
Did other people do strong suggestions
that you all got to stop?
No, I mean, no.
You don't go around professing something that's beautiful,
you kind of keep it...
You keep it safe,
and that's what we did.
We kept it safe,
it was between us,
it stayed between us,
and our friendship flourished.
Because, you know we sacrificed that
for where we were going,
and because of that that rise was beautiful.
It was awesome.
(audience applauding)
But why did the romance end?
The romance, not the friendship.
You say, okay.
You know, Whitney said to me one day,
she came to my house.
And she said, "You know, I don't think
"we should be physical.
"Because where we're going,
"if people found out about it,
"they would just use it against us."
It's kind of like fuel for the fire.
It was the 80s,
and that's how it was.
You were either this or that.
Women were treated...
You couldn't see two of your favorite female artist
on the same ticket,
that was like a far fetched dream.
And I think spiritually for her and her belief,
everyone knows Whitney gave a testimony
before every award show,
who she gave her thanks to.
And she was steadfast and steady on that,
she never wavered.
I took her lead,
I chose to love her unconditionally.
I didn't really know what that word meant.
Yes, she gave me a bible.
It was in a box,
and she gave me a bible.
And she said, "Love me unconditionally."
Aww.
And I aspired to do that.
And that's why I can sit here now.
That woman's spirit is like this.
She be here, right here.
So, prior to her meeting and marrying Bobby Brown,
she did have a few different boyfriends.
Including Eddie Murphy,
and including...
It was a football player or basketball player,
I forget.
I was on the radio yip yapping.
Yeah, yeah you were.
All right well, all right now.
(laughing)
Big time.
But, she had these different relationships,
and Jermaine Jackson.
Mm-hmm.
Who I understand,
he was the one that you really...
You weren't jealous of Eddie?
I wasn't jealous of anyone,
I wasn't at all.
I didn't have to be.
I knew where I stood with Whitney.
What about your relationship with Jermaine
in your mind?
Okay, well you know,
this is during the Jackson's reign,
and we all love the Jackson's,
we all grew up with them.
And I wouldn't say that Whitney had a relationship,
or he was a boyfriend.
They shared some time together,
and during that time it was our first apartment
that we moved into.
You and Whitney?
Yes.
In Jersey?
In Jersey.
You wouldn't want your child at that time
to have someone in her corner living together.
So it was us.
We clicked, she could trust me in that house,
and I could trust her.
So, that wasn't an uncommon thing.
But, we inscribed on the back of the bible
that she had given me,
that we would be loyal, honest, trusting,
dedicated and support each other.
And emotionally I guess I was still connected to her,
because I could tell while she was away in L.A.,
that something was happening.
I could feel it.
And that night I was on...
You know what, I was on the floor
just letting that just go through me.
And when she called,
it wasn't like she was bringing me into guess what girl,
and I thought that's what friendship would roll too.
And she wasn't open with me,
and that's not jealousy.
That is...
I'm Robyn, I'm the one that you...
I'm your bouncer.
You know, you bounce everything off,
and she wasn't bringing me in.
So, I felt some kind of way about it,
and I eventually came around to talking to her about it.
Did she tell you to back off?
No, no she didn't.
She knew I was ready to hear it,
and I guess she was ready to share it.
I don't know what she was feeling,
why she kept it from me.
And I didn't ask,
I didn't care.
I just wanted her to share where she was.
And once we got through that,
it was good.
(audience applauding)
So, stay here.
Do you feel good?
I'm feeling all right.
So far so good.
More with Robyn next.
Robyn didn't flee the scene,
so this is good.
Okay, so when she started dating Bobby,
how were your thoughts with that?
She said she wasn't going to be serious about Bobby,
but you know.
In the movie they flirted wildly at the award show.
It was no flirting wildly.
She bumped him and that was it.
With her booty?
Yeah, yeah.
Cute, that's cute back then.
So, did you do cocaine back then?
I indulged.
Yeah, but Whitney spiraled out of control with it?
Well...
You know, back in those days,
it just seemed like we were fearless,
ready for the world,
and we didn't do that all the time.
I mean, once we got on at home,
before we left home,
no one had money for that.
Folks just wanted a little joint or whatever,
and that was just about it.
But when we started to tour,
you know it was everywhere.
And we weren't looking for it.
Whitney was focused.
I mean, you don't accomplish what she did
sitting around getting high all day.
Whitney was dabbling in coke before she met Bobby,
because everybody always thought
that Bobby was the bad guy in terms of that.
Yeah, I mean I think we know
that Bobby was not...
I mean, I think Michael her brother
set that record straight.
But yeah, she was something else.
Was Bobby physically abusive to her?
From what I understand, yes.
Bobby saved his worst behavior
for when I wasn't around.
Did he kind of dismiss you from her life
once he became that guy to her?
No, no.
Bobby never dismissed me,
and I never moved on from Whitney's company
because of Bobby.
It was cumulative .
You know, he had a way of just...
You just never knew when he was gonna perform,
and that's what I call it.
You know, he was gonna show out.
Abusive.
Well, just show out,
just anywhere we could be.
But, no he did not push me out.
She was isolated.
Got you.
She became isolated,
that's what I would say.
Because, they were together isolated.
So, I didn't see as much of her
as I used to or needed to, you know.
Were you at the wedding?
I was there as the maid of honor,
doing what maid of honors do, supporting the bride.
Did you cry?
You know what, I had to represent.
And yeah I felt my friend.
You know, back then it was like
when your best friend gets married,
it changes, the dynamic changes
because they have a husband.
You know, I was in a helicopter flying over the wedding,
because I'm Wendy on the radio.
And the radio station,
they got me a helicopter to fly over the wedding.
I saw the big H in the pool,
I saw you all doing your thing.
And I came back to the radio and talked about it.
That radio interview that I did with Wendy,
because I've never met Whitney.
I had never met her.
You act like,
you talk like you do.
Well, that's what I do.
Look, look, I've only seen her in concert once,
and that was at the Beacon Theater in Boston
when I was a burgeoning radio star in college radio,
and she was in that concert with Jermaine.
And then, I've only talked to her once,
and that was on the radio.
And that was that interview.
Well?
(laughing)
Don't knock my hustle Robyn Crawford.
I heard that interview.
I got a call from my former assistant,
I wasn't working with Whitney.
And she said, "Whitney's gonna be on Wendy Williams."
I said, "What do you mean she's gonna be on Wendy?"
Turn on the radio.
And that was a cumulative fed up Whitney Houston
that I heard.
Fed up with me, or fed up with the world?
You had been talking about Whitney
and myself for so long.
Well, that's what I do,
and it all came true.
It's in the book.
Like a lot of the things that I said are in this book.
Well, a lot of things that you were saying.
I mean, we'd...
It was a long days work,
we'd get in the car.
The radio is on.
Everyone lived by the radio back then.
We're in the car,
and you're talking like you live with us,
like you're roommates with us.
We be in the car just sitting,
Still and Whitney would say,
"Who the, who is she?
"Who is this woman?
"I don't even know what she looks like."
We were gonna.
(laughing)
You were gonna jump me?
We were gonna go...
We didn't know what you looked like,
and our plan was to go down to Hudson Street,
and squat like leaf waiting for you right outside.
Robyn, I can't even fight.
I would've run.
You know what.
Oh my gosh.
We weren't gonna fight,
we just wanted to see you face to face,
and have a chat.
(laughing)
I'm frightened.
Oh my gosh, I dodged that bullet.
It was a lot, it was a lot.
And with all that we were dealing with.
I mean, I'm sitting here,
and now I know how Whitney felt all the time.
All the time, no matter what she said,
it just kept coming back, coming back.
That was a lot of pressure
for someone that just wanted to sing and touch people.
So Robyn, where were you February of 2012,
when you heard that Whitney passed away?
I was...
I had a strange morning.
It was a Saturday, and I ended up at a restaurant
in New Hope, Pennsylvania with a couple
that my wife and I did not know well.
And we had a sitter looking after our children,
and my phone was on the table and it was buzzing.
I don't know why it was buzzing,
but it was buzzing.
One after another.
Oh it's Paulette, it's Paulette again, okay.
Finally, the woman that we were having lunch with,
I mean dinner with,
fast forward to her.
She asked could she answer her phone
because her sister had called a number of times.
She wanted to make sure everything was okay.
And she finally hung up the phone.
But, she did midway through her conversation,
she went, "Huh."
I was like, "Everything all right?"
She said.
Indicating nothing.
And she hung up the phone,
and she said, "My sister is this huge Whitney Houston fan,
"and they say she passed."
Then I looked at my phone,
and it was Dewanna Williams
who was the attorney for our girl group,
which was the last project
that Whitney and I worked on.
After I left the company,
we worked on that together still.
And I asked her, "Is it true?"
And she said, "I think so Robyn, hold on."
Now Robyn, were you at the funeral?
I made it to the funeral, yes.
Did you see Bobby at the funeral?
I saw Bobby,
I saw Bobby right in front of us.
There wasn't any room.
The rows were taped off,
and I moved the tape and sat down in the seventh row.
How did Bobby...
How is he reacted to this book?
Do you know?
I have no idea.
Do you care?
The ones I cared about
when I made the thoughtful decision,
that I was going to share my story was Whitney,
how would she feel about the now.
My children, my wife, and after that I was good.
Hmm.
(audience applauding)
So now, the hologram tour.
What are your thoughts on Whitney as a hologram?
Perfect.
(laughing)
And a lot of people would say Robyn,
why did you stay silent for so long,
and now write the book?
Like do you need money,
or are you part of the...
Why did you choose to write this book now?
Because, Robyn is a season, grown, woman,
as you can see with very, very happy life, low key.
I'm joyful.
Yeah, why'd you write this book?
I wrote this book because I felt it was my duty
to stand up and share the extraordinary woman,
behind the amazing talent that she gave us.
And I wanted people to know that Whitney
is a real person.
She's a real person who deserved
to be handled sensitively, respectfully.
Do you go to the grave?
She's with me here.
I'm not going there,
I don't have to go There.
Thank you Robyn.
Thank you.
(audience applauding)
Robyn Crawford everybody,
her new book is called A Song For You,
it's available now.
(upbeat music)
