A new documentary about late singer, Whitney Houston alleges that her cousin, Dee Dee Warwick, a two-time Grammy nominee and backup singer for Aretha
A new documentary about late singer, Whitney Houston alleges that her cousin, Dee Dee Warwick, a two-time Grammy nominee and backup singer for Aretha Franklin and others, who died in 2008 at age 63, sexually abused her. Houston’s half-brother, Gary Garland-Houston and her assistant, Mary Jones, both made the claims against Dee Dee. Dee Dee Warwick is the younger brother of soul singer Dionne Warwick and was the niece of Houston’s mother.
The film, ‘Whitney’, directed by Scottish filmmaker, Kevin Macdonald debuted in Cannes on Wednesday night. The Times’s Ed Potton gave it a four-star review while The Telegraph’s Tim Robey was more lukewarm, giving it three stars and writing.
“The film is oddly unmoving as a memorial, but as with Amy Winehouse, it inspires a collective mea culpa for the feeding frenzy of public judgement that only turned to sympathy when it was far too late,” Tim wrote.
Houston’s half-brother Gary Garland was first to tell Macdonald of the abuse, and said he was molested as well. Pat Houston, who was Houston’s sister-in-law and manager, corroborated the claim. Macdonald said Houston’s aunt and longtime assistant, Mary Jones later provided additional details of the abuse, which she said Houston had confided to her. It was Jones’ interview that changed the direction of the film at the last minute.
“She told me Whitney’s point of view on this, and what Whitney had told her in detail, and how important she felt it was for understanding Whitney, but how scared everyone was to talk about it,” Macdonald told Deadline. “So, yeah, the film changed radically in the last weeks of editing it, which I guess, as a detective, is the result you want.”
Jones says in the film that the abuse filled Whitney Houston with shame.
The director said he believes the revelation will add understanding to Houston’s difficult life before her death.
“I think it will impact her legacy in a positive way because I hope that it will make people feel like I’m not going to dismiss her as this drug-addicted, tabloid, ne’er do well, low-class person,”
Whitney Houston, who sold millions of records and had hits with songs like ‘I Will Always Love You’ and ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’, died in 2012 at the age of 48. She drowned in a bath in a hotel and the coroner ruled that cocaine use and heart disease were factors in her death. Houston ended her volatile 15-year marriage to singer, Bobby Brown in 2007. Their daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, died at a hospice in 2015 at the age of 22, six months after she was found unresponsive in a bath.
Whitney will be released in UK and US cinemas on 6 July.
