Singer Dionne Warwick’s sister, Dee Dee Warwick, has been named as a person who molested Whitney Houston in a new documentary that premiered at Cannes on Thursday.
In the documentary Whitney, the singer’s longtime assistant, Mary Jones, says that Houston confided in her and told her about the molestation, which happened when she was a child. But Houston wasn’t the only family member who experienced molestation. Houston’s brother, Gary Garland-Houston, said that he was also molested as a child.
Kevin Macdonald, the director of Whitney, told Indiewire that it was Whitney Houston’s brother who told him that she might have been molested by Dee Dee, after revealing that he himself was.
“He’s saying ‘I was abused by this person’ and told me, ‘I think she abused Whitney,’” Macdonald said. “Pat Houston [Gary’s wife], who’s here, told me that, yeah, Whitney had told her this, but not given any details.”
“There was something about her discomfort in her own skin, something about the way she presents or hides herself, her lack of overt sexuality,” Macdonald said. “She’s this beautiful woman, but she’s very closed in her demeanor.”
He added, “I’d been watching her for several months and saying to editors, ‘There’s something about her that reminds me of something.’”
According to Jones, the childhood trauma impacted Whitney’s life, which led to her issues with sexuality and drugs.
Dee Dee Warwick, who died in 2008, was the niece of Houston’s mother, Cissy Houston. Dionne Warwick has not commented on the revelation.
Whitney is in theaters July 6.