According to the book, after years of secretly being together, Houston shared a hotel room with the singer while she was on tour in 1991. However, Houston and Crawford’s romance had allegedly turned violent by then as well. Houston’s former bodyguard, Kevin Ammons, told the author that he once saw Houston and Crawford in an argument over Houston talking to MC Hammer and that Crawford grabbed tightly onto Houston’s arm and yelled, “don’t you ever disrespect me like that!” The argument quickly escalated into a fight, in which Crawford slapped Houston. The singer’s mother, Cissy Houston, intervened and told Crawford, “I’ll kill you, you stupid b—-.”
As previously reported, in 1992, someone allegedly tried to extort Houston over the lesbian rumors. However, her father settled the matter quietly. John Houston offered Ammons $6,000 to “put the fear of God” in Crawford, but Ammons declined.
In that same year, perhaps in another attempt to silence the lesbian rumors, Houston married singer Bobby Brown. However, her alleged romance with Crawford continued into the next year. According to biographer Jeffrey Bowman, a former bodyguard told him that the love triangle between the three turned violent at New York’s Peninsula Hotel.
After years of being by Houston’s side, Crawford resigned from Houston’s company before moving to L.A. to live a quiet life away from her famous friend.
After Houston died in 2011, Houston’s friend, Peter Tatchell, explained he felt that “Whitney was happiest and at the peak of her career when she was with Robyn. Sadly, she suffered family and church pressure to end her greatest love of all. She was fearful of the effects that lesbian rumors might have on her family, reputation and career. … It seems like that the split with Robin contributed to her substance abuse and decline.”
