As Crawford was laying on the bed in her former room within their New Jersey mansion, Houston entered and lay down next to her.
Houston asked Crawford to be her Maid of Honor. “I was very emotional,” she writes of the wedding day. “I looked into her eyes when I took her bouquet — taking one last look.”
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Crawford continued to work for Houston for eight more years. But following the marriage, Crawford claims her friend became further isolated andher drug use escalated. The volatile marriage often made tabloid headlines.
“I saw and heard him speak to her in ways that were demeaning, and [he] talked down to her,” says Crawford. She added that she was pushed further and further away until she quit in 2000, fearing she could no longer protect her friend.
While they fell out of touch, Crawford says Houston would call from time to time. Once, it was on the heels of a 911 call Houston made after a fight with Brown when the couple was living in Atlanta. “She asked how I was doing, and I stopped her, saying, ‘I want to hear how you’re doing,'” writes Crawford. “She said she was ok. I understood I could help her only when she decided she needed it.”
Crawford and Houston.Dave Hogan/Getty
She hoped that day would come, but it never did. When Crawford heard ofHouston’s death on Feb. 11, 2012, she writes, “I felt my inside shattering.” She had lost her closest friend.
And while therevelation of their love storyis the one making headlines, Crawford emphasizes it’s their friendship that endured — and that’s what she wants people to remember.
“I felt the need to stand up for our friendship,” she says. “I have a lot of beautiful, wonderful, exciting adventures and loving, caring memories. Whitney was a beautiful friend.”
source: people.com
