You may not have heard the rumors, the gossip or you haven’t seen the Whitney documentary. Robyn Crawford has been linked to Whintey Houston in a romantic way. The Houston family has denied any relationship between the two.
Lena Waithe sat down with Robyn for Oprah Magazine to talk about their long relationship. See excerpts from the interview below.
Lena Waithe to Robyn on how she saw herself in her growing up: “I grew up watching Whitney Houston on TV, but I would always zero in on you. You’ve got to be special for somebody to look past Whitney Houston and go ‘Who’s that?’” “I saw myself in you. And I didn’t know why back then; I was a young person who didn’t have the language to understand who I was yet. But I was aware I wasn’t like everybody else. That, I knew.”
Robyn on being intimate with Whitney: “You name it, we did it. We were intimate with all of it. And the physical part was like a river. We both dived in, and there was goodness there. But the big picture was always where she was going. And our friendship was the foundation.”
Robyn on the claims Whitney was molested by cousin Dee Dee Warwick: “Whitney was very close to the Warwicks, before super stardom and during. She talked a lot about Dee Dee, how talented she was as a singer, how funny. And Whitney and I talked a lot about our families. She told me everything. So if there was any truth to that, I would’ve known. I don’t have any doubt about that.”
Robyn on Whitney’s marriage to Bobby and how she felt she was ‘losing her’: “By the [wedding], we were so past that. But I will say I did feel that I was losing her in some way. Because back then it was very much when a woman gets married, you lose them, because they are committed to their marriage entirely. So, I did feel that, looking at her on her wedding day bonding her life with someone else…I did see that in her eyes that I was losing her. I really wanted this to work for my friend. I wanted whatever vision she dreamed for herself—I wanted her to be happy. Look, I heard the rumors about Bobby just like she did. I didn’t know anything else about him beyond what everyone else knew. That he was a womanizer, that he was over here with this one, that one. But he was obsessed with Whitney. Later on, though, I realized that Bobby never knew Nip. He never got to be her friend.”
Robyn on learning Whitney was dating Jermaine Jackson while he was married: “When I found out she was dating Jermaine Jackson, I was more disappointed that she felt she couldn’t talk to me like a girlfriend. I mean, he’s a Jackson! We grew up loving the Jacksons. If we were friends, why shouldn’t we be able to talk about that? I write about that night when I confronted her about what was going on between them, how I could feel that there was something between them. So if you want to talk about the physical part between Whitney and I…yes, I could feel that she was being physical with other people, starting with Jermaine.. I didn’t need her to tell me. And I cried.”
Robyn on Whitney dating Eddie Murphy: “I didn’t really know the ins and outs of what was going on with her and Eddie. All I saw was my friend chasing a guy who did not deserve her. He called them friends, but he didn’t show me someone that was a thoughtful friend. But she spent a lot of time with Eddie, I remember she had a few of his shirts. She loved him. Whitney liked dark-skinned guys. She had a type. Like, she would’ve never dated a white man. [Laughs] And you know what? Whitney told her personal assistant Sylvia and I that she wasn’t going to get serious with Bobby. Whatever went on, she showed signs that her heart was really with Eddie.”
Robyn on her relationship with Bobby and why he was ‘annoying’: “I was annoyed with him on that tour, because he was annoying. But we were cool. There were no Everlast shorts and boxing gloves and all that stuff people like to say about me and Bobby. He never raised his hand to me. Now, I never had a real substantial conversation with him, either—the kind where you connect with someone, sit down, and talk to them. I would just see Bobby perform. That’s what I’d call it. I’d see him behave in a way that…maybe, it was jealousy, or you might mistake that for him being protective of Whitney. But I didn’t have this conversation with Whitney about it.”
Robyn on why she wrote a book now: “I had comfort in my silence for many years. When her daughter Bobbi Kristina passed [in 2015], that’s when I first really felt the need to stand up, hearing the way people were treating Bobbi, Whitney, our friendship, and their version of my story. And I felt the legacy of my friend was buried underneath all of that. That’s when I had to ask Nip about writing this book. I actually sat there and asked her up above: “What would you want me to do? Do you understand why now?” Feeling her yes, that was my clearance. When I felt complete in my being that I could have the confidence to stand up and lift her legacy out of the trash, to elevate it and put it back in her hands, while also honoring our friendship…that’s when I felt ready.”
Robyn on her sexual identity: “As for me, I don’t label myself today. I don’t feel like I have to slap a label on my chest just because I found love with my wife. Just because I choose to stand up for anything that I choose to support, doesn’t mean that I have to be this or that. I’m just Robyn. And Whitney also always pushed back on labels. That went for her music, too. She didn’t sing Black music or white music; she just sang.”
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