Music

Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown were married for 14 years. The public ridiculed their relationship at every turn but Houston's best friend Robyn Crawford says she was happy for the singer.

Published on July 10, 2022

Whitney Houston’s lifelong friendship with Robyn Crawford fueled many rumors about her sexuality. Crawford would reveal after Houston’s death that they were briefly romantic but ultimately decided to be friends. Houston would eventually marry Bobby Brown, and their marriage lasted 14 years with Crawford having a front-row seat. Crawford was in the wedding party, and admits that though she supported her friend’s dream of marriage and family, she felt left out in her future. 

Robyn Crawford and Whitney Houston met as teenagers and remained friends into adulthood; had a brief romance

Crawford and Houston met in 1980 as teenagers while working together at a New Jersey summer camp. They quickly bonded and got their first apartment together. Crawford says their friendship turned romantic for a brief period of time.

But due to Houston’s religious upbringing and her budding singing career, Houston ended the romantic element. They remained friends and Crawford worked at Houston’s company.

Publicly, Houston denied she and Crawford were ever more than platonic friends. Crawford didn’t confirm otherwise until her 2019 book A Song For You: My Life With Whitney Houston.

She admits she felt she was losing Whitney Houston to Bobby Brown

Houston and Brown exchanged vows at her New Jersey mansion in July 1992. Crawford served as her maid of honor on her wedding day. In an interview with The Chi creator Lena Waithe for Oprah.com, Waithe asked if it was difficult for her to stand by Houston on her wedding day as she wed Brown.

“By then, we were so past that. But I will say I did feel that I was losing her in some way,” Crawford admitted. “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.”

Despite such, she explained that she was hopeful the marriage between Houston and Brown would last. The media was no fan of the marriage from the start. Crawford’s opinion of Brown changed throughout the years.

“I really wanted this to work for my friend,” Crawford told Waithe. “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 Crawford says Bobby Brown was jealous of her relationship with Whitney Houston

While Crawford didn’t have any ill feelings toward Brown, she describes him as “annoying.” For the most part, they got along, until Crawford says he felt threatened by her and Houston’s friendship.

“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,” she explained. “And I write in the book, I’d buy gifts for someone from Whitney. And Bobby would flip. When I mean flip…that’s when he’d get in my face. And Whitney wouldn’t say anything.”

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