Whitney Houston A Lesbian? Actress Explains How Angela Bassett’s Biopic Handles An Alleged Same Sex Relationship

Director Angela Bassett has made it clear that her Whitney Houston biopic will cover taboo subjects the late singer never addressed publicly. Her turbulent relationship with Bobby Brown is a given, as well as her drug abuse, but will Lifetime’s biopic cover a lesbian relationship?

According to the Wrap, the film will hint if not address a relationship Houston had with her longtime friend and personal assistant Robyn Crawford. Actress Yolanda Ross spoke to the publication about how she prepared to play the role with a lack of information about Houston’s alleged girlfriend.

“There were maybe three or four pictures of Robyn that I could find, and production couldn’t do much better – they found one tiny clip of her talking, just so I could get an idea.”

According to the Wrap, the Whitney Houston biopic “portrays Houston as a woman who was naïve about romantic love and who was perhaps never able to properly express herself due to her strict upbringing.”

Despite that, the Lifetime biopic doesn’t go on to paint Houston in a romantic relationship with Crawford, but it does show Robyn in a battle with Whitney’s husband Bobby Brown due to the affectionate nature of their relationship.

Ross continued to speak about how she researched the nature of their relationship.

“It was taking what I could find out about their friendship and how long they knew each other, and that was it. So, I was just acting off emotions – what’s on the page and what these two people in this particular situation, how they would be acting and reacting to each other.”

In terms of whether Whitney Houston was in a same sex relationship, the actress did not want to speculate.

“Whether or not it was more than that in terms of them being a couple, we can’t say that because it was not confirmed. As the actor playing them, I hit all those notes and felt all of them. I played it as somebody that loved another person.”

As the Inquisitr reported, Bassett spoke out about Whitney’s demons with drugs and how she wanted to bring that to Houston’s legacy for the biopic.

“Each of us have something that can over take us, so you have to put boundaries. No one’s perfect. If you don’t work on some issue that we all have — you can’t allow exposure of everything in the world. Seeing, hearing, and doing whatever will affect you. Unfortunately drugs is[sic] one of those things. You think you can dabble and play with it until it gets a hold.”

Lifetime’s Whitney will premiere on Saturday, January 17 at 8 p.m.

[Image via Lifetime]