Pat explains she started to really notice Whitney's struggles when she was working with her, as her assistant, in the 1980s.
- Jul 6, 2018
AceShowbiz - Whitney Houston's sister-in-law Pat Houston has opened up about the singer's desperate addiction battle, revealing she tried in vain to get the late singer help.
The I Will Always Love You singer battled drug addiction for several years before she passed away in 2012 and now Pat is fighting back at claims the family should have done more to help Whitney, insisting the stubborn star was not always receptive to help and advice.
"When she was living in New Jersey they (family members) would host interventions for her, but it wasn't until she moved to Atlanta (that I was able to help more)," she told U.S. chat show The Talk on Thursday, July 05. "I wasn't really around her that much when she lived in New Jersey..."
Pat explains she started to really notice Whitney's struggles when she was working with her, as her assistant, in the 1980s.
"When she was recording her (1987) album, Whitney, and I was working with her at that particular time, I saw a lot and I was very disturbed and I knew she needed help," she adds. "We started reaching out and talking to the attorneys and they told us exactly what needed to be done and (my husband) Gary and I, along with their mother (Cissy), we stepped up."
The trio managed to persuade the singer to seek help and she agreed to go to a rehab facility, called Hope for Women - but Pat explains she had motives other than getting well.
"She did that to keep us from getting her, but at least she made that effort," Pat adds. "After that, when she was troubled, we got her into rehab. She didn't speak to me, I guess, for three months at one time because she didn't like the fact that she was forced to go."
Whitney drowned in a bathtub in her Beverly Hills hotel suite in February, 2012. Drugs were listed as a cause of death.
