Oprah Winfrey set it off on the second day of the five-day Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which began this week on Monday.
This year marks the 73rd edition of the festival, the largest gathering for the creative marketing industries.
While speakers, producers and fillmaker came to celebrate creative excellence, Oprah had other things she wanted to share.
Winfrey’s speaking event took place on Monday, June 22, where shared an unflattering moment about Whitney Houston that took place on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” almost two decades ago.
She said her first interview with the legendary singer was “powerful.” Before he took the stage, they spoke candidly about what they wanted from the conversation.
The OWN founder said that exchange helped make the interview more meaningful.
But Houston’s final appearance on the show in 2009, did not go as smooth for “The Bodyguard” star.
“I had such trust from ‘The Oprah Show’ audience – I think it was her last show with us, and she had gone back on drugs,” Winfrey started.
She continued, “The first interview I did with her when we’d gone behind stage and I asked her about her intention, she was clean, but the day she came to my show then to perform in front of the audience, she was not, and she fell off of the stage.”
Oprah Winfrey reveals Whitney Houston once fell off the stage while performing on her show, but she asked the audience not to tell the media about it.
"I begged them not to put those pictures out, because it would ruin her life. And they did not." pic.twitter.com/ATri84hsLn
— Variety (@Variety) June 23, 2026
Houston famously struggled with drug use long before the public became aware of it. It’s reported that she started using around her 20s.
She continued using even in her 1992 to 2007 marriage to Bobby Brown. But it got out of hand as the marriage turned sour.
Winfrey continued, “I knew that if that story got out that she’d fallen off that stage that she would be destroyed by that,” Winfrey said.
“And so even though the audience was there and the audience had cameras, I begged them not to put those pictures out, because it would ruin her life, and they did not. That would not happen today, I can tell you that.”
According to CBS News, Houston went to rehab a few times in her life, including in 2004 and 2005.
During her 2009 sit down on Winfrey’s show, she told “The Color Purple” star then that she was drug free.
But at some point the “Count on Me” singer relapsed, and in 2011 Houston voluntarily checked herself back into rehab.
Sadly, Houston died the next year of an accidental drowning in the bathtub at the The Beverly Hilton hotel. Heart disease and cocaine use were contributing factors of her death.
Fans expressed their anger in the comments over Winfrey divulging Houston’s vulnerable moment that people likely didn’t know.
One upset viewer said, “Soooooo……. U begged the audience not to mention it but yet you mention it yrs later. We wouldn’t have know if you didn’t open your mouth Oprah!”
Another person who felt similar wrote, “She really didn’t have to say that she could have kept that to herself.”
“Why put her under the bus after her passing, with no right of reply. Selfish and not cool,” wrote a third person.
One skeptical fan typed, “Coincidental how this is being bought up now shortly after Clive passed…”
One the same day Winfrey told the story, Clive Davis, known as the music mogul and executive who discovered Houston, died at age 94.
Davis first saw a 19-year-old Houston sing in 1983 at a nightclub and he signed her on the spot to Arista Records.
When it came to her battle with drug addiction, Davis said in the documentary “Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives” that he wrote Houston a letter pleading for her to get help in 2001.
Years before that, he claimed to have staged an intervention with her in his home in 1997.
However, Davis received backlash for the way he handled Houston’s death.
She died a day before the Grammys, while Davis was holding a famous pre-Grammys party at The Beverly Hilton Hotel.
Instead of canceling it to honor his biggest artist, he simply made a speech in her honor and continued the party with her body remaining floors above guests.
In an 2013 interview with Larry King, Davis said he “never” gave it a thought to cancel the party and even claimed Houston’s family did not want him to.
Davis continued to face criticism about his decision to keep the party going after Houston’s passing.
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