{"id":6586,"date":"2026-06-23T22:51:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T22:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/oprah-reveals-secret-whitney-houston-stage-fall-she-fought-to-keep-hidden\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T22:51:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T22:51:27","slug":"oprah-reveals-secret-whitney-houston-stage-fall-she-fought-to-keep-hidden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/oprah-reveals-secret-whitney-houston-stage-fall-she-fought-to-keep-hidden\/","title":{"rendered":"Oprah reveals secret Whitney Houston stage fall she fought to keep hidden"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F3%2F2026%2F06%2F131977007.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Oprah Winfrey once helped cover up an onstage fall Whitney Houston suffered while performing on \u201cThe Oprah Winfrey Show.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe did the whole, \u2018Hey girl, how you doing?\u2019 greeting thing and then I stopped the cameras and I went behind stage and I said, \u2018So tell me, what do you want to happen here? And I\u2019m gonna tell you what I want to happen here.\u2019 And that was one of the most powerful interviews,\u201d Winfrey, 72, said Tuesday at Cannes Lions, <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/tv\/global\/oprah-winfrey-whitney-houston-fell-off-stage-begged-audience-not-leak-1236787965\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">per Variety<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Houston \u2014 who had long <a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2022\/12\/25\/clive-davis-whitney-houston-made-valiant-attempt-to-give-up-drugs\/\">struggled with substance abuse<\/a> \u2014 later returned to perform on the talk show and, at that time, had already relapsed.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Oprah Winfrey (seen here at the 2026 Cannes LionHeart Seminar) revealed she once asked audience members to hide the time Whitney Houston fell on stage while performing on \u201cThe Oprah Winfrey Show.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">\/ SplashNews.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>\u201cThe first interview I did with her when we\u2019d gone behind stage and I asked her about her intention, she was clean,\u201d Winfrey recalled, adding that the singer had relapsed on drugs around the time of her appearance.  <span class=\"credit\">\/ SplashNews.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cI had such trust from \u2018The Oprah Show\u2019 audience \u2026 I think it was [Houston\u2019s] last show with us, and she had gone back on drugs,\u201d the Emmy-winning host continued. \u201cThe first interview I did with her when we\u2019d gone behind stage and I asked her about her intention, she was clean.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut the day she came to my show then to perform in front of the audience, she was not, and she fell off of the stage,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew that if that story got out \u2026 she would be destroyed by that,\u201d Winfrey, this year\u2019s recipient of the LionHeart Award at the Cannes Lions, recalled.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Winfrey said she \u201cknew\u201d Houston (pictured here performing in December 2009) would\u2019ve been \u201cdestroyed\u201d by photos of the incident going public.  <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>\u201cEven though the audience was there and the audience had cameras, I begged them not to put those pictures out because it would ruin her life,\u201d Winfrey (pictured here hugging Houston) said. <span class=\"credit\">Harpo Productions<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Winfrey continued: \u201cAnd so even though the audience was there and the audience had cameras, I begged them not to put those pictures out because it would ruin her life, and they did not. That would not happen today, I can tell you that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cGreatest Love of All\u201d hitmaker died at 48 years old after she <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/02\/10\/inside-whitney-houstons-devastating-final-weekend\/\">accidentally drowned in the bathtub<\/a> in February 2012. However, the effects of heart disease and cocaine use were also listed as underlying causes behind <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2012\/03\/22\/whitney-houston-had-cocaine-in-her-system-at-time-of-death-coroner-says\/\">her cause of death<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For many years, it was believed Houston started abusing substances during her relationship with Bobby Brown, whom she was married to from 1992 until she filed for divorce in 2006.<\/p>\n<p>But, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2018\/07\/05\/whitney-documentary-reveals-the-first-time-she-did-drugs\/\">the 2018 documentary \u201cWhitney,\u201d<\/a> Houston\u2019s history with drugs began well before she became acquainted with the \u201cMy Prerogative\u201d artist.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Houston (pictured above performing at the 2009 American Music Awards) died in 2012 after she accidentally drowned. She was 48 years old.  <span class=\"credit\">WireImage<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Further tests revealed the singer had cocaine in her system at the time of her passing and that heart disease had played a role in her death, too. <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the film, it was revealed that Houston\u2019s brothers Gary and Michael \u2014 who would travel with their sister and serve as bodyguards \u2014 both admitted to facilitating and participating in their sister\u2019s drug use.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf anything was gonna be done, I was gonna be the one to show it to her,\u201d Michael says in the film.<\/p>\n<p>A friend of the brothers, Keith Kelly, also confessed that he was the one who first gave Houston drugs \u2014 a bag of marijuana and a snort of cocaine \u2014 on her 16th birthday. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s an amusing but also kind of tragic moment where her brother Michael says, \u2018We used to do rings around Bobby. He was not able to keep up with us. We lapped him in drug-taking. He\u2019s a lightweight,\u2019\u201d the film\u2019s director, Kevin Macdonald, told The Post at the time. \u201cThat kind of vindicates Bobby.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration\u2019s National Helpline at 800-662-4357.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/06\/23\/celebrity-news\/oprah-reveals-secret-whitney-houston-stage-fall-she-fought-to-keep-hidden\/\" target=\"_blank\">Source link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oprah Winfrey once helped cover up an onstage fall Whitney Houston suffered while performing on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/131977007.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}