27-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Whitney Houston's tragic final moments 'feasting on food' with gravy boat in bathtub
The Bodyguard actress sold more than 170 million albums and won six Grammys but substance abuse led to her undoing - we take a look back at the premature end to her life
Whitney Houston was once pop music's shining star but away from the spotlight, her life was in freefall.
The How Will I Know singer was just 48 when she died, after battling drug addiction for decades. Despite entering rehab on numerous occasions, Whitney had been unable to break free from the addictive substances that shaped her life.
Shockingly, the star earned £76 million over the years but by the time of her death in 2012, her fortune was all gone. We take a look back at the final days that marked a tragic end to Whitney 's once glittering career...
READ MORE: Whitney Houston's bodyguard reveals he almost 'gave up everything' to be her lover
At the top of her game, the singer from New Jersey's talent was unmatched but after marrying Bobby Brown in 1992, her drug use escalated. Whitney starred in smash hit movie The Bodyguard the same year.
"After The Bodyguard it started getting heavy - cocaine, marijuana," she told chat show host Oprah Winfrey in 2009, admitting to spending seven months in her pyjamas, sitting on the sofa getting high on crack cocaine."You're living in the same house, and you're sitting next to that person and you're not saying a word for a week. And you just sit there watching TV. That bad," she said.
"I didn't think about singing any more - I'd totally forgotten about that life. I had so much money by that time."
Whitney walked out of rehab after just five days in 2004 and failed again the following year. She told Oprah she was drug free in 2010 but pulled out of a string of planned gigs in the UK and America the same year, citing ill health.
By 2011 Whitney had returned to rehab in 2011 and in February 2012 was due to stage a comeback at the Grammys, arriving in Los Angeles several days before the award ceremony. Whitney reportedly appeared "dishevelled" and "erratic" and was spotted wandering aimlessly through the Beverly Hilton hotel with wet hair, waving her arms around.
The star's last ever public appearance came on February 9 when she took to the stage with Kelly Price to sing Jesus Loves Me. On the morning of July 11, she had breakfast at the hotel with daughter Bobbi, then sources say she retired to suite Suite 434, ordered more food and took some Xanax ahead of Clive Davis' party where she was due to perform that evening.
"She frequently took anti-anxiety medications to help her sleep after nights of heavy partying," a source told Radar Online. "She also took them before big performances to calm her nerves."
Whitney apparently then took a phone call from her cousin, singer Dionne Warwick, about seating arrangements for that evening, followed by another from her mum, gospel singer Cissy Houston, which the publication described as 'cheerful and upbeat'.
She is said to have told her assistant that she had a sore throat and was going to take a bath before the pre-Grammys bash.
Next, the troubled star reportedly ordered more room service, eating a burger with fries as she ran the bath. She took a turkey sandwich and some jalapeno peppers into the bathroom with her, along with a gravy boat of olive oil - presumably to add to the bath to soften her skin.
According to the report, her bodyguards heard her singing in the tub. But shortly before 3pm they realised she had been quiet for some time.
One guard called out, but there was no answer, and when he knocked, there was no response so he opened the door and found Whitney face down in the bathtub. Paramedics attempted CPR but pronounced the iconic singer dead at the scene.
Toxicology reports found Whitney had a mix of cocaine, cannabis, Xanax, Benadryl and Flexeril in her system. The Bodyguard star's autopsy report found that she had heart disease so advanced that one artery was 60 per cent blocked.
Whitney's official cause of death was given as accidental drowning contributed to by heart disease and cocaine use. Tragically, her daughter with Brown, Bobbi Kristina, suffered a similar fate just three years later. Bobbi was just 22 when she was found unconscious in a bathtub at her home after ingesting drugs and alcohol.
