Whitney Houston Reveals Drug, Marriage Troubles on “Oprah”2009-09-16

When Whitney Houston gave her infamous “crack is wack” interview to Diane Sawyer in 2002, she owned up to a mild drug problem.

Over the past two days on Oprah, the singer revealed the true extent of her troubles: that she was addicted to marijuana laced with rock cocaine and emotionally battered by husband Bobby Brown until she gathered the strength to leave him in 2006 following rehab stints and an intervention by her mother, Cissy.

The second part of Houston’s Oprah appearance featured an emotional performance of “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength” that left Winfrey in tears. (The song came off stronger than Houston’s lackluster tunes on Good Morning America, which were filmed the day after she taped the Oprah interview.)

Houston told Winfrey she originally dropped out of the spotlight because she “wanted to be normal — I had no normal 20s, I had no normal 30s.” But her 14-year marriage to Brown spiraled out of control and nearly claimed her career.

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