For hosts like Oprah Winfrey, there are celebrity interviews, and then there are the ones that stay with you. During a recent appearance at the Cannes Lions festival, Winfrey opened up about one of the most heartbreaking moments she experienced on The Oprah Winfrey Show involving Whitney Houston. A moment the public never saw, thanks to her loyal audience and team.
While accepting the LionHeart Award, Winfrey reflected on her long history with Houston, including their now-iconic interviews. She recalled the intention-setting conversation they had before sitting down for their first major interview in 1999. It’s a conversation Winfrey still considers one of the most powerful of her career.
© Getty“We did the whole ‘Hey girl, how are you doing?’ greeting thing,” Winfrey said, per Variety, before revealing she immediately stopped production to speak with Houston privately. “I said, ‘So tell me, what do you want to happen here? And I’m gonna tell you what I want to happen here.’ And that was one of the most powerful interviews.”
But it was Houston’s final appearance on Oprah’s show in 2009 that left a lasting mark. According to Winfrey, Houston, who was once again struggling with substance abuse at the time, suffered a devastating fall while performing for the studio audience.
“I had such trust from The Oprah Show audience,” Oprah recalled. “I think it was her last show with us… she had gone back on drugs. The first interview I did with her, she was clean. But the day she came to my show to perform in front of the audience, she was not, and she fell off the stage.”
© GettyOprah knew how damaging that moment could be if it became public. “I knew that if that story got out… she would be destroyed by that,” she said.
Instead of letting the moment turn into a media sensation, Oprah made a direct plea to everyone in the room. “I begged them not to put those pictures out because it would ruin her life.”
And remarkably, they listened. In a world of clout chasing and going viral, with little compassion, Winfrey doesn’t believe it could ever happen in today’s hyper-online culture. “That would not happen today, I can tell you that,” she said.
© Ron Galella Collection via GettyHouston was always incredibly candid with Winfrey about addiction and the emotional toll it took behind closed doors. She would go on to pass away at the age of 48 in February 2012 after an accidental drowning.
Elsewhere during her appearance, Winfrey also shared some words of advice for influencers, or the budding content creators with access to a camera and microphone. “Your bigger job here on the planet is to be the best human being you can be, not the best creator, not the best talk show host, not the best podcaster, but how are you evolving into what creation intended for you to be?”
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