A new documentary about the life of Whitney Houston reportedly claims the singer was sexually abused as a child.
Whitney, directed by Scottish film-maker Kevin Macdonald, alleges Houston’s cousin, the soul singer Dee Dee Warwick, abused her, according to reports.
The film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and features interviews with several of Houston’s relatives and closest friends.
Two of them, Houston’s half-brother, the former NBA basketball player Gary Garland-Houston, and her assistant, Mary Jones, make the allegations against Warwick.
Houston, who enjoyed enormous success in the 1980s and 90s, selling millions of records and starring in the box-office hit film The Bodyguard, died in 2012 aged 48.
She drowned in a bathtub after years of struggling with drug and alcohol abuse.
Houston ended her volatile 15-year marriage to rhythm and blues singer Bobby Brown in 2007.
Dee Dee Warwick is the younger sister of soul singing icon Dionne Warwick and was the niece of Houston’s mother.
She enjoyed a successful career as a soul singer in the 1960s and 70s but never matched the heights of her more illustrious sister.
Dee Dee died at the age of 63 in 2008.
Houston’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina, suffered a similar fate to her mother.
She was found unresponsive in a bathtub and spent six months in a coma before dying in 2015 at the age of 22.
The Warwick family has been contacted for comment.
Whitney will be released in UK and US cinemas on 6 July.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here