The trailer for Whitney has been released. The documentary, which premieres in July, was directed by Kevin Macdonald, who also directed Oscar winner One Day in September and the Bob Marley documentary Marley.
This documentary, unlike another on the late singer, Whitney: Can I Be Me, was approved by Houston’s estate, which denounced the earlier documentary after it touched on “the myriad factors that led to her death and a broader dissection on the intersection of race and marketing in the music industry” as well as the singer’s bisexuality.
It’s unclear if the new film mentions Houston’s sexual orientation.
Houston’s former husband Bobby Brown spoke about her sexual orientation in 2016.
“I know,” Brown, 47, told Us of his ex-wife’s relationship with [best friend and assistant Robyn] Crawford, 55. “We were married for 14 years. There are some things we talked about that were personal to us.” Houston and Crawford met as teens when they both worked at a community center in East Orange, New Jersey, and Crawford became her assistant and later creative director, traveling the world with the Bodyguard star.
Brown insisted that Houston was bisexual and not a lesbian. “I’m a man and she was attracted to me!”, he said.
Brown believed that Houston denied her relationship with Crawford while alive because she knew her family would disapprove. In 2013, Houston’s mother Cissy Houston told Oprah she would “absolutely” have been disappointed if her daughter had come out to her as gay.
It was the lack of acceptance that Brown believed may have been fatal to Houston. Brown told Us, “I really feel that if Robyn was accepted into Whitney’s life, Whitney would still be alive today. She didn’t have close friends with her anymore.”
