Whitney Houston ‘was sexually abused by her cousin’

Whitney Houston, late singer, was sexually abused by her cousin Dee Dee Warwick, according to a new documentary about her life.

Delia Juanita Warrick, known as Dee Dee Warwick, was an American soul singer.

Gary Garland-Houston, Houston’s half-brother and Mary Jones, her assistant, made the claims against Warwick, who died in 2008.

Narrating her conversation with the late singer, Jones said: “[Houston] looked at me and said, ‘Mary, I was molested at a young age, too. But it wasn’t by a man—it was a woman. She had tears in her eyes. She says, ‘Mommy don’t know the things we went through.’ I said, ‘Have you ever told your mother?’ She says, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Well, maybe you need to tell her.’ She said, ‘No, my mother would hurt somebody if I told her who it was.’ She just had tears rolling down her face, and I just hugged her. I said, ‘One day when you get the nerve, you need to tell your mother. It will lift the burden off you.’”

Jones said Houston was ashamed to reveal the incident to anyone, and used to say, “I wonder if I did something to make [Dee Dee] think I wanted her”.

‘Whitney’, directed by Kevin Macdonald, a Scottish filmmaker, premiered at Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday.

The documentary also confirmed that Houston and her best friend Robyn Crawford were lovers.

‘Whitney’ will be released in cinemas on July 6.

Houston, who sold millions of records and recorded hit songs like ‘I Will Always Love You’, died in 2012 at the age of 43.

She drowned in a hotel bathtub, and the coroner ruled that cocaine use and heart disease were factors which contributed to her death.

Houston ended her topsy-turvy 15-year marriage to Bobby Brown, a singer, in 2007.

Bobbi Kristina Brown, their daughter, died at the age of 22 in 2015, six months after she was found unresponsive in a bathtub.