Whitney Houston Biopic Screenwriter Says Bobby Brown is Not to Blame For Singer’s Drug Addiction

Whitney Houston’s marriage to Bobby Brown was controversial to many. Fans saw Brown as a negative influence on America’s pop princess, but Houston and Brown have long maintained that they were more alike than not. Houston’s fans have also blamed Brown for her drug addiction. But the screenwriter of her forthcoming biopic says Brown is not to blame.

Whitney Houston’s brother revealed her introduced her to drugs

In a 2013 Oprah interview with Houston’s mother, Cissy, and her brother Michael, her older brother admitted to introducing The Bodyguard star to drugs. It was Cissy’s first time hearing the revelation, and it was difficult news to digest as she sat with tears streaming down her face. Cissy revealed that she’d previously been warned by Houston’s friend and former employee, Robyn Crawford, that Houston was using drugs.

“I feel responsible for what I let go so far,” Michael told Oprah Winfrey of the “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” singer. “We were always, you know, being together most of the time, and her following behind me — I taught her to drive. We played together — everything that you do together as you’re growing up — and then when you get into drugs, you do that together too, and it just got out of hand.”

When Oprah flat-out asked Michael if he was the one who started Houston down the path of addiction, he answered honestly. “I would say, yeah, we did everything together, so once I was into that, then she followed suit,” he said. “I think probably the first time we ever, she ever did it was probably, you know — but you gotta understand, at the time, the ‘80s, it was acceptable…. In the entertainment industry it was just like, available. It wasn’t like a bad word like it is now. You know what I’m saying? We didn’t know. We just didn’t know.”

Screenwriter says Bobby Brown is not responsible for Whitney Houston’s drug addiction and the two loved one another but weren’t a good match

It took Houston’s passing for her brother to publicly claim some level of responsibility for Houston using drugs. Despite several insiders and even Brown himself denying Brown was the culprit, not many believed such.

But screenwriter Anthony McCarten for the biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody says the film showcases that Brown should not have been blamed. “The drugs were there before Bobby came into the scene,” he explained in an interview with Vanity Fair, noting Houston’s longtime friend Robyn Crawford revealed in her 2019 memoir that Houston tried cocaine for the first time at age 14.

“Bobby wasn’t so into drugs. He was more into booze,” says McCarten, adding that Houston and Brown were inseparable but that “They weren’t great for each other in that respect. But they were the real thing.…I think she genuinely loved Bobby, and he genuinely loved her. Everyone I spoke to said he made her laugh and she so wanted to laugh. They had a lot of fun together. But many relationships where there’s a great chemistry don’t always work out.”

Whitney Houston says she was addicted to Bobby Brown

In Houston’s most in-depth interview, she spoke with Oprah in 2009 about her career highs and lows, as well as her drug use and marriage to Brown. The singer noted in the interview that she would only discuss everything once. She admitted that her drug use increased throughout the years amid the pressures of fame, but that her biggest addiction was to Brown.

“I was addicted to him,” Houston said firmly. “Everything we did, we did together.”