The man who acted as Whitney Houston’s bodyguard for seven years – at the height of her fame – has revealed an allegation made against her then husband that was so secret and shocking that, after it was ‘dealt with,’ it was never mentioned again.
Until now.
In his new memoir, Protecting Whitney, former police officer-turned-security detail David Roberts recounts that, while touring the US to promote her blockbuster movie The Bodyguard, with Kevin Costner, and its accompanying soundtrack, Houston started to become increasingly sick.
‘Whitney, the gel that kept the unwieldy tour machine together and rolling, was falling apart and losing traction emotionally and physically,’ he writes.
‘As she anguished over her demons, the tour became blighted by show cancellations due to a host of issues, including illness, loss of voice, the ever-present husband-induced stress, problems with dryness of clime affecting her vocal cords, and even a reported pregnancy that turned out to be anything but.’
And he claims that, while in Texas, the singer believed she was miscarrying her longed-for second child with husband Bobby Brown. But when she was examined, it was reported that she had never been pregnant in the first place.
David Roberts got very close to Whitney during the seven years he acted as her bodyguard
Houston with her fictional bodyguard, played by Kevin Costner, in the film of the same name
‘I wondered if this phantom pregnancy came out of her desperation to try to hold on to a husband,’ writes Roberts. ‘All Whitney ever wanted was to love and be loved.’
But, he adds: ‘The worst was yet to come. There was an incident that was so bloody heartbreaking for Whitney, and so secret, that there exists no written report or other reference on file.’
In June 1994, Brown’s other children joined the entourage, to keep a one-year-old Bobbi Kristina – Bobby and Whitney’s beloved daughter – company.
With them was a teenage girl who is unnamed in the book, but is referred to as ‘not one of Bobby Brown’s children and somewhat older than the others.’
This youngster acted as a defacto nanny during the day.
One night, when Houston was performing in Las Cruces, New Mexico, a close member of her team came to Roberts looking shaken, he writes.
That person informed him that the teenage girl had accused Brown of coming to her hotel room while she was alone.
She claimed she had been coloring in a book at the time and the rap star had sat down beside her and joined in the coloring.
According to the girl, Brown had then raped her and she was now pregnant.
Bobby Brown’s representatives declined to comment, and he was never charged with any crime in connection with the allegations.
Roberts comments: ‘What bitter irony – while Whitney was convincing herself she was pregnant in an effort to hold on to her man, that same man was allegedly impregnating someone else.’
He says: ‘I was, of course, shocked at the allegations. As a policeman, that is how I saw it at the moment, as an uncorroborated and otherwise unsubstantiated allegation made by an underage girl against a male adult.
‘It would have been inappropriate, and unprofessional, to reach any definitive conclusion.’
He passed on what he had been told to another key member of Whitney’s staff – who promptly fainted – and to John Houston, her father, ‘stressing these were currently allegations without any form of corroboration or proof.’
But, as word spread, Whitney soon heard the whispers and summoned Roberts to her dressing room, he writes.
Whitney Houston performing in Minneapolis in July 1994
The singer with husband Bobby Brown and Bobbi Kristina – David Roberts is in the background
Roberts (left) watches over Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston at The Bodyguard premiere in 1992
He passed on what he had been told, ‘stressing above all else that it was an allegation, not a statement of fact.
‘On completing my synopsis, she looked at me hard with cold eyes and simply said, “Thank you.”’
The incident, he writes, ‘abruptly ended what remained of the tour’.
Records show that the scheduled concerts following Las Cruces on July 13, 1994, were cancelled or rescheduled to later in August.
The morning after learning of the devastating accusation, Whitney and her closest confidantes flew back to New Jersey.
‘That was the very last I or anyone else heard of what was one of the saddest events I had ever experienced with Whitney,’ he writes.
‘She appeared heartbroken, but strangely resigned to it all.’
He reports that the girl concerned and her mother were delivered to Whitney’s luxurious home in Mendham, New Jersey, 24 hours later, to meet with her legal team.
‘Suffice it to say, the matter was dealt with, and neither the girl nor the incident was ever discussed again. I mean ever.’
He points out that he never spoke with Bobby’s accuser pesonally, nd always maintained this was an allegation with no proof to support it.
‘All Whitney ever wanted was to love and be loved,’ writes Roberts
The couple with Bobbi Kristina – Whitney is said to have had a phantom pregnancy while on tour
The ever-present Roberts (background) guarding Whitney Houston at a benefit event in 1992
But he says: ‘If the story was entirely without merit, then that raises the question why? Why would a young girl invent such a story? Could someone so young be so devious?’
He also adds that, two years after he was no longer working with the star, he took a call from a member of her entourage, ‘alleging similar abuse by Bobby Brown with regard to the member’s own daughter.
‘The caller wanted a recommendation for a lawyer.’
The police, he says, were never involved, and he believes Whitney ‘simply forgot something that never happened, at least in her mind. She believed what she needed to believe for her own peace of mind and ever-degenerating emotional stability.’
Roberts told Dailymail.com: ‘Who do you know at that level of the industry, and with such a reputation, who has not had allegations made against them? Diddy? Jay-Z? Some with merit, others not.
‘This allegation was never proved or admitted by anyone to my personal knowledge. It does not mean it was not true, it was simply never affirmed and ultimately dissipated without further reference as to veracity or otherwise.
‘I never spoke to the child making the allegation. I was told the story… I then had to repeat what I had been told to Whitney personally, and then that was the end of it from a thereafter legally engineered perspective.
‘All hearsay.’
When asked if anyone else could corroborate the story, he said: ‘Yes of course. That’s how it happened. Would they do so? I have absolutely no idea whatsoever.
‘There are only two persons who know the absolute truth – Brown and the child involved.’
Protecting Whitney: The Memoir of Her Bodyguard by David Roberts is published by Chicago Review Press
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