Revealing...

ABC7: Whitney Houston reveals all to Oprah

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Whitney Houston is celebrating her first No. 1 album in more than 16 years, and it was Oprah Winfrey who got the much in-demand interview with the songbird about her return.

"I think it's the best interview, because as you know, you're only as good as the person on other side of chair," says Winfrey of her interview with Houston.

During the interview, Winfrey asks Houston questions ranging in topics from drug use to the singer's famed voice. "I could sit there and ask all the best questions, as did Diane Sawyer seven years ago, and she could just not be ready to talk," says Winfrey, "but she came ready, open, out of denial. Whitney is out of denial, and she delivered and brought her best game."

Houston related one story that proved to be a life changing moment for her, which was when her mother, singer Cissy Houston, came to her house with the authorities. "She says I have a court [injunction] here," says Houston about her mother to Winfrey. "You do it my way or we're just not going to do this at all. You've got to give this up because it's just not worth it," Houston continues during the interview.

"My jaw was dropping half the time, because I finally got it. She loved that man, " Winfrey told Eyewitness News, referring to Bobby Brown. But it was her mother's love that pulled her out of her darkest moments. "She said, let's go, let's do this. I'm not losing you to the world. I'm not losing you to satan. I'm not doing this. I want my daughter. I want you back. I want to see that glow in your eyes," says Houston about her mother.

Winfrey says that the interview with Houston cleared up questions she had about the singer. "You know all this time, we've all been saying, 'what is she doing with him, what is that all about?' She loved that man, Bobby Brown," says Winfrey. "Like a lot of women do with men, they feel they need to make him feel important and need to dim their own light, and they need to let him be the man. That's what she was doing," explains Winfrey. Winfrey's interview with Houston airs Monday at 3 p.m. on ABC7.