Whitney Houston’s mother says sexual allegation claims are ‘unfathomable’
Cissy Houston and Dionne Warwick released a joint statement after seeing the new documentary 'Whitney'
By Steve Brown
Whitney Houston’s mother has called the molestation claims “unfathomable”.
In the new documentary Whitney, Gary Garland-Houston – Whitney’s half-brother – alleged that his own cousin Dee Dee Warwick molested him and the singer when he was aged between seven and nine.
The claims were supported by Whitney’s own assistant Mary Jones who said the singer told her she was “molested at a young age”.
However, now Cissy Houston has released a statement with Dionne Warwick – Dee Dee’s sister – who said they cannot “overstate the shock and horror” about the allegations.
They wrote in a joint statement: “We cannot overstate the shock and horror we feel and the difficulty we have believing that my niece Dee Dee Warwick molested two of my three children.
“Dee Dee may have had her personal challenges, but the idea that she would have molested my children is overwhelming and, for us, unfathomable.
“We cannot reconcile the public’s need to know about Whitney’s life as justification for invasion of her privacy or the charge against Dee Dee, a charge which neither Whitney nor Dee Dee is here to deny, refute or affirm.
Despite the new documentary being approved by the Houston family and produced by Whitney’s own sister-in-law Patricia, they claim they didn’t know any of the allegations until two days before the first screening.
They continued: “Neither my son, Michael, Dionne nor I knew of the allegations of abuse, the direction the film would take, until two days before the screening at Cannes.”
Despite Dee Dee’s death in 2008 at the age of 66, the decision to include the stories in the film was not one taken lightly – not least due to the fact that two of her closest relatives, sister Dionne and Cissy are still alive.
Speaking exclusively to Attitude’s July issue, Patricia says: “You start thinking about them and the impact that it had on their life.
“The shame that you feel now or the embarrassment that Dionne may feel, the hurt that they may feel.
“They were astonished because they did not know, they honestly did not know.”
“Behind all this you have to swing back and think about Whitney and Gary and everything they went through.”
Whitney is out in cinemas now. Read our exclusive interview with Patricia Houston and Lisa Erspamer in Attitude’s July issue.
Buy now and take advantage of our best-ever subscription offers: 3 issues for £3 in print, 13 issues for £19.99 to download to any device.
