Update!

Oprah Cracks Whitney: Bobby "Was My Drug"

Houston talks cocaine use, Brown's physical abuse and her mother's attempts at an intervention in first of two-part interview with Winfrey

By Gina Serpe Sep 14, 2009 10:08 PMTags

Not talking crack would've been wack.

Unlike certain other artists who shall remain nameless, Whitney Houston has what you would call room awareness. As a result, the comeback kid woman shared exactly what people wanted to hear on the first of her two-day Greatest. Interview. Ever. with Oprah Winfrey, talking drugs, Bobb-ay and more.

The interview started—as, seemingly, did Houston's troubles—with Bobby Brown.

"He was my drug," she said. "I didn't do anything without him. I wasn't getting high by myself. It was me and him together. We were partners."

On at least one occasion, physically abusive partners.

While Houston herself stopped short of categorizing her husband as an abuser, she said that he did at times cross the line of physical contact.

Houston said Brown "slapped me once but he got hit on the head three times by me." Another time, she said, he "spit on me, in my face."

The encounter came after a birthday party for the former New Edition singer which, apparently, wasn't to his liking. She said the incident, witnessed by their daughter, Bobbi Kristina, left her "very hurt, very angry" and ultimately "horrified."

Still, she stuck by him due to what she called his "sweet, gentle tenderness."

Which, apparently, manifested itself in the moments he wasn't smashing objects inside their home.

"Something happens to a man when a woman has that much fame," she said. "I tried to play down all the time. I used to say, 'I'm Mrs. Brown, don't call me Houston.'

"At home, he was very much the father, he was very much the man. He was very much in control. I liked that. When he did something, I listened. I was very interested in having someone have that kind of control over me. It was refreshing."

That is, until it wasn't.

"We fought hard. We loved hard," Houston said. "I was so weak to him. I was so weak to the love."

And the drugs. The 46-year-old said her use of illicit substances became "heavy" not long after her 1992 hit The Bodyguard—the same year, incidentally, she and Brown tied the knot. Her drug of choice was marijuana laced with rock cocaine.

"You put your marijuana, you lace it, you roll it up and you smoke it," she said.

Houston did occasionally endeavor to do the right thing, just with limited success. The couple only divorced in 2007 and Houston said that she stuck by Brown for so long because she took her wedding vows seriously. Houston said it was their daughter who convinced her to leave Brown.

The star also said that was open with Bobbi Kristina about their drug use and even once took her to an Atlanta rehab center for mothers and children.

At one point her mother, Cissy Houston, even attempted to intervene, turning up to their home with two armed sheriff's department officers and a court injunction.

"One day my mother came to my house...she walks in with these sheriffs and she says, 'I have a court junction [sic] here. Either you're gonna do it my way or we're just not gonna do this at all. We're both gonna go on TV and you're gonna retire. This is not worth it.'"

Brown was present at the time, but luckily Mama Houston was not as easily intimidated as her daughter.

"She said, 'If you move, Bobby, they're gonna take you down. Don't you make one move.' He stood there like he was scared.

"She said, 'I'm not losing you to the world, I'm not losing you to Satan, I'm not doing this. I want my daughter back.'"

As for Brown, he's not about to sit idly by as Houston reveals all about their relationship.

In an albeit much less hyped interview of his own with The Insider, Brown said he and Houston "corrupted each other. I don't think she hurt me or I hurt her. I just think we had a 14-year marriage that had its ups and downs and not many people understood it."

As for his drug use, Brown said he "used an awful lot...I think I was bored. I had just gotten married and things weren't right. Unfortunately, I turned to alcohol and drugs."

As for any potential explosive or simply unflattering revelations that may come from Houston's Oprah sit-down, don't expect a PR war to break out.

"If there's something that she says that is untrue or disrespectful then I'll deal with that with her."

(Originally published Sept. 14, 2009, at 2:16 p.m. PT)

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Did you catch Whitney's Bobbi Kristina-accompanied performance on GMA last week? It's not too late.