Robyn Crawford made an appearance on Jada Pinkett Smith‘s show Red Table Talk on Facebook Watch to promote her new memoir A Song For You: My Life With Whitney Houston and things got intense when she gave details about her alleged romantic relationship with Whitney Houston. The author, who says she had an incredibly close bond with the late singer, claims their friendship got physical in the 1980s in her new book and on Jada’s show, which aired on Nov. 18, she opened up about the memorable moments they had, including the first time they kissed.
“Whitney and I first met at the community development center where we were summer counselors. I was 19 and she was 16 and soon to turn 17,” Robyn explained. “One day after camp, we were just talking. There was something there that made us connect and then that one moment, we both just met and you know, our mouths touched and that was our first kiss. It was awesome.”
Robyn went on to tell Jada that she and Whitney, who passed away at the age of 48 in 2012 after drowning in a bathtub due to coronary artery disease and cocaine intoxication, weren’t hiding the physical aspect of their relationship. “We weren’t hiding it but we knew that it was ours,” she said. “Whitney’s mom had a little, I call it fever, about our closeness. Whitney was like, ‘I need Robyn here. Where I’m going, I need someone who knows me now.'”
Although they remained close friends for most of Whitney’s life (she even served as Maid of Honor in her wedding), Robyn admitted that Whitney is the one who stopped the physical aspect of their relationship in 1982, shortly after she signed her first record deal. She gave her a bible at the time, which they wrote farewell love letters to each other in. “She said, ‘I have something for you,'” Robyn said while explaining the moment the “I’ll Always Love You” crooner gave her the bible. “She said, ‘I don’t believe that we should be physical any longer’, that ‘It would make our journey much harder if they found out about it.’ But she also said, ‘Living that kind of life, you could go to Hell.’ Her mom also had told Whitney that it was not natural for two women to be as close as we were.”
Robyn, who is now married to talent agency executive, Lisa Hintelmann, said she wrote her headline-making book, which came out on Nov. 12, for Whitney and still loves her. “No one ever really dies,” she said. “We keep them with us.”