Oprah finally had eyeballs watching her network last night. As expected, the ratings were HUGE. (According to Nielsen, Oprah's Next Chapter had 3.5 million total viewers, giving OWN its highest ratings ever.) In the exclusive interview with Whitney Houston's daughter, Bobbi Kristina, and her brother and sister-in-law, Oprah gave the family members the opportunity to quell the rumors surrounding Whitney's death and showed that world that Bobbi Kristina is doing well. Who knows if Whitney would've co-signed on this interview. While there weren't any bombshells in the softball interview, there were a few interesting tidbits.Bobbi Kristina speaks:
"[I'm] doing as best as I possibly can. Just trying to keep going. I gotta keep going....[What's getting her through it?]... My family, The Lord. Just hearing her all the time....I can hear her voice and spirit talking to me, telling me 'Keep moving, baby. I got you.' She's always with me I can always feel her with me. She always asked me: 'Do you need me?' and I caught myself one day saying 'I always need you.' ....Her spirit is strong.... I feel her pass through me all the time. All the time. I wake up at night. She always said at 5 o'clock in the morning the saints wake up and they start praying. Ever since then I've woken up at 5 out of no where and I just start praying. I get humble. She humbles me. I remember what she told me, what she told me through these 18 years.... [Does she feel Whitney's presence in the house?] I could still sit there and laugh with her. I could still sit there and talk with her. ...I still have all of her clothes, everything that she's always given me. I have. and nobody knows how much of amazing spirit she was. she wasn't only a mother she was a best friend, she was a sister, a comforter. The spirit she had, no matter where she went, she touched everyone....We had our arguments. We had our disagreements, but at the end of the day, that was still my mother, my confidant. That was still my everything and I was her everything... [How is dealing with the pressure] I gotta keep moving. I gotta carry on her legacy. I still have a voice. We're gonna do the singing thing. We're gonna do some dancing, some acting. It's a lot of pressure, but she prepared me for it. [Are there any misconceptions she'd like to clear up?] Now she literally is an angel. Everyone want to say she was someone that she wasn't. I saw her hurt, I saw her cry, and I held her through that. We held each other for that. We have so many people saying so many different things, but they don't know who she was. all that negativity is garbage. That's not my mother. That's not who she is, they just wanna say what they want to say, they wanna do what they want to do. But in reality, I knew who she was, her family knew who she was."
Then the conversation moved to the couch, where Oprah asked some "tough" questions of Pat Houston, Whitney's manager and sister-in-law.
On Ray J, Whitney's on/off-again boyfriend, who is alleged to also be addicted to, ahem, illicit drugs and was out partying with Whitney days before her death. Pat didn't mention him by name, but we all can infer she was talking about him.
"I saw her chasing a dream. Looking for love in all the wrong places. The dream she was chasing was younger. In my opinion, a young man that's thriving and loved to be out and about. When you're dealing with an older woman that's kind of at home just looking for the love and the comfort, and I just felt she was chasing something that would ultimately hurt her."
On Stacy Francis. The former X Factor contestant, who got into a verbal spat with Whitney in a nightclub two nights before her death.
"There have been lots of talk about a confrontation that she had. There were words back and forth. [Stacy] comes over and says hello, but we keep seeing her. Every corner that we go go, here she comes. Didn't know here. She didn't know her from Adam....I saw expressions, I saw [Stacy crying]. She and Whitney had words. I didn't hear the words. There was no physical fight. [Stacy] made herself present every where we were.
What happened on Feb. 11, the day Whitney died:
I (walking to her hotel room) heard screaming .... and I saw the hairstylist drop to her knees and I kept walking very slow. I knew something was wrong. As I got closer and I turned the corner (Whitney's aunt and assistant Mary Jones) is at the door and she's screaming 'Ohmigod!' When I got to the room I saw my brother trying to revive her to the point of exhaustion.... He was on his knees. He was out of breath breath. I felt so badly for him and then I saw her. She had a peaceful look on her face. [Pat told Oprah she doesn't know how Whitney got in the bathtub]...When Ray (Whitney's bodyguard and Patricia's brother) left the room they were asking me to leave and I couldn't do it. I just couldn't leave her and I saw them covered her up and I knew that was it. And looking at her and looking at that I could not believe it. ....I just had to keep my calm, but I had to do it....It was extremely surreal. (Mary found her and Mary called ray)...I haven't had a moment to reflect because of everything I have to do. I still have to stand even with her being hone, I have to stand for her and I will always stand for get, because that's what shed wanted me to do .....I don't know what happened that day.
Did Whitney know what damage she did to her voice:
She knew....She would always tell Clive (Davis), 'I'm older now. My voice has changed.' She would always make excuses for not being able to do certain things. But she still could sing with what she had, better than most.
On the leaked casket photo:
"(I) have no idea." Patricia says. Her husband, Gary, chimed in: "I felt very violated. It was very intrusive and very wicked. Very wicked." [Our notes: These answers were quite strange. They're not angry at the picture-taker, they're angry at the tabloid for printing it. What?!]
On Bobby Brown:
"He was supposed to be (at the funeral)....I loved Bobby. Bobby was a good guy," Gary says.
Sidebar: Patricia says she will always protect Whitney (or is it she wants to protect herself?), so the cynics among us believe she wasn't telling the entire truth to Oprah. But, hey, that's just us. And....Whitney was going to film an informercial for Patricia's candle company? WHAT?! We'll wait to see what the Enquirer and the other tabs have to say about all of this. Carry on.
In case you missed the interview, watch it in full, below (5 parts):
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
SIDEBAR #2: He who must be named (Ray J) was at a charity event last weekend and spoke of his love for an unnamed person who's no longer with us and how much he misses her.
0 comments:
Post a Comment