Whitney says sorry to fans

05dec02

AFTER years of speculation, pop singer Whitney Houston has come clean about her drug problem.

Houston admits she used marijuana, cocaine and other drugs - and apologised to fans for missed concerts.

Melbourne fans have waited a long time for the apology.

In May 1997, she cancelled a performance at Crown just one hour before she was due to go on stage, infuriating ticket holders who had paid up to $400 to see the superstar in an intimate show.

Houston claimed her voice had gone, but was allegedly seen smoking cigars at 5am on the day of the ill-fated show.

"There are things I apologise for, like concert dates," she says in a US television interview.

"The people really mattered to me, and I know they came out to see me, and I apologise for that. I'll make it up to you.

"But that's the only people in the world - the public, the fans, are the people that I apologise to - because if I don't have my best to give, then I can't give it to them."

Houston, 39, said the pressures of being a pop star, combined with a showbiz life that robbed her of her teenage years, were some of the reasons for her drug abuse.

Asked "Is it alcohol? Is it marijuana? Is it cocaine? Is it pills?" Houston replied: "It has been at times. I had no time to grow up. I had no time to party.

"I didn't even date in my 20s. It was rough. I think I kind of reverted back as I got older and said, `Well, I'm just gonna party'. It was kind of a rebel in me."

She said she has overcome her substance abuse through prayer.

She also denied rumours that she had health problems, which began after a string of cancelled live performances and her extreme thinness.

The mother of a nine-year-old daughter, Bobbi, Houston said she did not suffer from anorexia or other eating disorders.

In the ABC interview, recorded at Houston's Atlanta home, the singer expressed regret over a lawsuit filed by her father, who is suing her for $180 million.

Actor John Houston is claiming that amount in a breach-of-contract lawsuit and for bailing her out after her January 2000 marijuana arrest in Hawaii.

Houston began her career in the public eye as a teenage model, then gained huge success at age 19 with the release of her first album.

Her husband of 10 years, Bobby Brown, appears in the interview with her.

NEWSFILE: 5 DECEMBER 2002