The estate for singer Whitney Houston has rebuked Oprah Winfrey for “repeating myths” about the singer by claiming drugs caused her to fall off stage during a 2009 interview.
Speaking at Cannes Lion on Tuesday, Oprah Winfrey said that Houston had been “back on drugs” after she fell offstage during her live performance on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
“I knew that if that story got out that she fell off the stage that everybody would be, that she would be destroyed by that,” Winfrey recalled. “So even though the audience was there and the audience had cameras, I begged them not to put those pictures up because it would ruin her life, and they did not. That would not happen today, I can tell you that.”
In an Instagram post on Wednesday, Whitney Houston’s estate said that Houston only fell off stage during a soundcheck.
“From the 2009 interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Whitney absolutely fell off stage, but it was during a soundcheck and it was due to the darkness of the area and her unfamiliarity with the stage,” the estate said.
“She was absolutely not high,” she added.
The estate later issued a formal response picked up by several media outlets.
“Like many people, she faced personal battles, but it is inaccurate and unfair to attach that struggle to every performance or every chapter of her life,” the estate’s statement read. “What the studio audience witnessed on stage was the result of discipline, talent and commitment not the assumptions others project.”
“Whitney’s humanity included triumphs and struggles, but on that day, she showed up as the professional and gifted artist she always worked to be. We owe her the dignity of telling the truth not repeating myths,” it concluded.