Whitney Houston and Robyn Crawford actually met when they both had summer jobs at a community center in East Orange, New Jersey.
Whitney Houston and Robyn Crawford’s complex relationship spanned nearly 20 years, enduring secrecy, joys, and hardships.
But when the two met as teenagers, Houston had yet to become a global phenomenon and Crawford had yet to become her lover-turned-best friend.
As “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” portrays it, Crawford introduced herself to Houston on the steps outside a building in East Orange, New Jersey.
In reality, it was Houston who introduced herself to Crawford in 1980 while they were youth counselors at the East Orange Community Development Center, according to journalist Gerrick Kennedy, author of the biography “Didn’t We Almost Have It All: In Defense of Whitney Houston.”
“It was a bond that formed almost immediately, and they were inseparable that summer. If you saw one, you saw the other,” Kennedy wrote.
While Houston and Crawford’s relationship was initially sexual, Houston ended the physical aspect when she presented Crawford with a bible one day in 1982.
“She said we shouldn’t be physical anymore, because it would make our journey even more difficult,” Crawford wrote in her book “A Song For You,” adding, “She said if people find out about us, they would use this against us. And back in the ’80s, that’s how it felt.”
Crawford, however, remained Houston’s executive assistant and best friend for years, weathering rumors and tabloid headlines until quitting in 2000.
“I loved her, and there was nothing I felt was wrong about loving her,” Crawford told The Guardian in 2019. “And she was loving me for me. I didn’t have to do anything. That’s where friendship is supposed to be. We were connected.”
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