Rosie O’Donnell Claims She Knew Whitney Houston Was A Lesbian

Rosie O’Donnell says she knew Whitney Houston was a lesbian. 

Rosie opened up on “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen” about Whitney’s rumored romantic relationship with her assistant,  Robyn Crawford. 

“I didn’t know them as a couple per se, but I knew that they were together,” Rosie, 55, said in the interview. “I’m friends with a lot of very athletic, older lesbian women who are in the WNBA. And that’s sort of the group [they hung out with], all of these basketball-playing women. So, I knew that and I knew it for a very long time.”

Rumors surrounding Whitney’s sexuality recently surfaced after the documentary “Whitney: Can I Be Me” aired on Showtime in August. In the film, several of Whitney’s family members claimed that her relationship with Robyn was more than just a longtime friendship. 

Rosie told Andy that she was surprised when the “I’m Every Woman” singer’s longtime collaborator Clive Davis claimed that he knew nothing about her sexuality given how close they were. 

“Everyone sort of knew it,” Rosie said. “I thought it was very surprising when Clive Davis came out and said that he never discussed her being gay, and I was like, ‘Well, I don’t believe that for one minute.'”

In early October, Clive told Reuters in an interview that Whitney’s life and death greatly affected his own life. “Her death was so startling and unexpected – there is that analogy when someone dear to you, and it brought back the loss of my parents – how you can be affected by this tragedy,” he told Reuters.

Whitney’s death shocked the world in February 2012. She died at 48 years old and the cause of death was accidental drowning, but toxicology reports showed that she had several drugs, including cocaine and cannabis, in her system at the time.