Lesbian Lovers? Whitney Houston & Alleged Girlfriend Robyn Crawford's Secrets Exposed

Houston and Crawford first met at camp in 1979. "I knew right away she was special," the singer's confidante recalled in an obituary she wrote for Esquire after the sudden death.

In a rare voice recording included in a Houston documentary, the star was heard saying about meeting basketball player Crawford that she "was tall and statuesque, and I was like, 'Wow, I've been waiting for this person all my life.'"

Crawford previously recalled of the young Houston, "She looked like an angel…. Not long after I met her, she said, 'Stick with me, and I'll take you around the world.'" Now Crawford is revealing more about their relationship in her new book.

The singer's mom Cissy, now 86, did not approve of her close friendship with Crawford, sources claimed to Houston biographer Ian Halperin. However, Cissy has never addressed gay rumors about her daughter.

Houston and Crawford's teen peer group reportedly suspected a romantic relationship early on. In one incident, a student called Houston a "d**e," prompting her to fly into a rage, according to biographer Halperin, the author of Whitney & Bobbi Kristina: The Deadly Price of Fame.

In the mid-80s, Crawford reportedly moved into Houston's apartment in New Jersey's Mendham Township.

Houston called Crawford her "personal assistant" in the 1980s, but was she much more than that? In an obit that Crawford wrote about Houston in 2012, she explained, "I was her assistant and then her executive assistant and then her creative director. I was her point person for the day-to-day. I traveled all around the world first-class…her checks never bounced. You knew she was going to take care of you."

Houston's mother Cissy once said that Crawford was the first person to tell her about her daughter's drug habit, in 1987. In Cissy's memoir, Remembering Whitney, she wrote that Crawford seemed worried about Houston. "Robyn said that both she and Nippy were doing drugs on occasion, but that 'Nippy likes it a little too much.'" Cissy said she immediately confronted her daughter about the drugs, but got the brush off.

When biographer Halperin asked Houston's father John directly about the lesbian rumors about her, he didn't deny them. "I don't ask my daughter what goes on in her bedroom," he said. But John admitted the singer's inner circle pleaded with her to spend less time with Crawford.

By 1991, Houston and Crawford's relationship had turned violent, according to Halperin's book. The star's former bodyguard Kevin Ammons told Halperin he once witnessed Crawford grabbing her rumored lover's arm screaming, "Don't ever disrespect me like that," after she chatted with rapper MC Hammer.

While on tour in 1991, the two women reportedly shared a hotel room. In the documentary, Whitney: Can I Be Me, the hitmaker's stylist Ellin Lavar said, "Robyn provided a safe place for her…in that Whitney found safety and solace."

An L.A. waiter told a reporter he saw Houston locking lips with another woman, likely Crawford, at L.A.'s Chasen's restaurant in the early '90s.

After Houston married Bobby Brown in the summer of 1992, her former bodyguard said Crawford threatened to tell all about her relationship with the singer. Houston's father allegedly offered the bodyguard $6,000 to keep Crawford quiet.

In 1993, Houston, Crawford and Brown allegedly got into a "physical altercation" at New York's Peninsula Hotel, a security guard told biographer Jeffrey Bowman. Bobby, who later divorced Houston, has claimed she was involved in a romantic relationship with BFF Crawford in the 1980s — but her family did not approve.

In his own book, Every Little Step, Brown wrote that he tossed Crawford – his wife's overbearing and "disrespectful" assistant — out of his marital home, telling her: "You gotta get the f**k out. This is my wife. You have to go!"

Houston's brother, Gary Garland-Houston, has said he didn't like Crawford. "Robyn was a nobody. She was wicked, evil, and an opportunist. She was someone I didn't want my sister to be involved with….I knew Whitney was a lesbian – for sure I knew," Gary said.

Houston allegedly cut off Crawford in 2000. According to Us Weekly, the longtime pal resigned from Houston's New Jersey-based company, Nippy Inc., and moved to Los Angeles.

According to Kevin MacDonald's documentary, Whitney, Houston's father was so furious to learn the star was a lesbian that he allegedly plotted to hire gangsters to attack her female lover! "He wanted somebody to scare Robyn," claimed Keith Kelly, a Houston family friend. But the plan didn't happen and the women remained close at that time.

Houston died tragically in a hotel room while high on drugs. British activist and Houston pal Peter Tatchell claimed her breakup from Crawford led to her downward spiral.

Although Houston and Crawford apparently hadn't been in touch for years, the "So Emotional" singer's alleged lover wrote a goodbye obit for her in Esquire. Crawford shared at the time, "I can't believe that I'm never going to hug her or hear her laughter again. I just hope that she wasn't in pain and that she hadn't lost hope." Fans will soon know what more she'll disclose in her book.