Whitney Houston’s mother has spoken out about claims made in the new big screen documentary about her daughter’s life, which alleges Whitney was molested by a family member.
Cissy Houston and Whitney’s cousin, the Motown legend Dionne Warwick, have released a joint statement stating the claims are “unfathomable”.
In ‘Whitney’, which is on current release, the late singer’s half-brother, Gary Garland-Houston, alleges that Warwick’s sister Dee Dee molested him and Whitney when he was aged between seven and nine.
His claims are backed up by Whitney’s assistant, who said the singer told her she was “molested at a young age” by a woman.
Cissy Houston and Dionne Warwick have now issued a statement, insisting they did not want the claims included in the film.
The statement reads: “We cannot overstate the shock and horror we feel and the difficulty we have believing that my niece Dee Dee Warwick (Dionne’s sister) 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.”
It continues: “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.”
Unlike last year’s other Whitney documentary, ‘Whitney: Can I Be Me’, ‘Whitney’ was approved by the Houston family.
However, Cissy added in her statement: “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.”
Dee Dee, who was also a singer, died in 2008 after years of battling drug addiction.