{"id":247965,"date":"2026-06-23T17:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T17:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/23\/oprah-says-whitney-houston-once-fell-off-her-stage-while-high\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T17:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T17:49:14","slug":"oprah-says-whitney-houston-once-fell-off-her-stage-while-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/23\/oprah-says-whitney-houston-once-fell-off-her-stage-while-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Oprah Says Whitney Houston Once Fell Off Her Stage While High"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>If you ever doubted that Oprah Winfrey is a good and loyal friend, let this story disabuse you of that notion:<\/p>\n<p>More than a decade after Whitney Houston\u2019s tragic death, Oprah just shared a heartbreaking story that the public never knew about.<\/p>\n<p>During an appearance at the Cannes Lions Festival this week, Oprah recalled a frightening moment from Houston\u2019s final visit to <em>The Oprah Winfrey Show<\/em> in 2009.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><noscript><\/noscript><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-93311558-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"Singer Whitney Houston accepts the Winner of International - Favorite Artist Award onstage at the 2009 American Music Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on November 22, 2009 in Los Angeles, California.  \" class=\"wp-image-557678 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-93311558-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-93311558-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-93311558-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-93311558-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-93311558-960x639.jpg 960w, https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-93311558-1080x719.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-93311558-1200x799.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 760px) calc(100vw - 20px), 720px\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-93311558-scaled.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Singer Whitney Houston accepts the Winner of International \u2013 Favorite Artist Award onstage at the 2009 American Music Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on November 22, 2009 in Los Angeles, California.  <span class=\"image-caption-credit\"> (Photo by Kevork Djansezian\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>According to the Queen of Daytime Talk, Whitney had already completed a powerful interview discussing her struggles with addiction and her hopes for the future.<\/p>\n<p>But things took a troubling turn when it came time for the singer to perform.<\/p>\n<p>Oprah revealed that Houston was sober when they conducted their backstage conversation before the interview.<\/p>\n<p>By the time she returned to the stage to sing, however, Oprah says that had changed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first interview I did with her when we\u2019d gone behind stage and I asked about her intentions, she was clean,\u201d Oprah recalled. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">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. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I begged them not to put those pictures out, because it would ruin her life. And they did not.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ATri84hsLn\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/ATri84hsLn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Variety (@Variety) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Variety\/status\/2069337244565930289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\">June 23, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cBut the day she came to my show to perform in front of the audience, she was not, and she fell off of the stage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The revelation stunned the audience at Cannes, as the incident was never reported at the time and remained a closely guarded secret for nearly 17 years.<\/p>\n<p>Oprah explained that she immediately feared what would happen if images or videos of the fall became public.<\/p>\n<p>Houston was attempting a comeback at the time, promoting her album <em>I Look to You<\/em> and openly discussing her past struggles with substance abuse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew that if that story got out that she\u2019d fallen off the stage, that she would be completely destroyed by that,\u201d Oprah said.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the fact that audience members had cameras and could have easily shared photos, Oprah says she personally appealed to them not to do so.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven though the audience was there and the audience had cameras, I begged them not to put those pictures up because it would ruin her life, and they did not,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Oprah added that she doubts such a request would be honored in today\u2019s social media landscape.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat would not happen today, I can tell you that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, the world is a very different place in 2026, and we mostly mean that in a bad way. <\/p>\n<p>These days, footage of Whitney\u2019s stumble almost certainly would have wound up online, and the comments section would have immediately devolved into the most vile culture war nonsense.<\/p>\n<p>Oprah\u2019s compassion toward her troubled friend reminds us all of a time when Americans were generally far more empathetic than they are today \u2014 a time that we can hopefully return to someday soon.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehollywoodgossip.com\/2026\/06\/oprah-says-whitney-houston-once-fell-off-her-stage-while-high\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reading Time: 2 minutes If you ever doubted that Oprah Winfrey is a good and loyal friend, let this story disabuse you of that notion: More than a decade after Whitney Houston\u2019s tragic death, Oprah just shared a heartbreaking story that the public never knew about. During an appearance at the Cannes Lions Festival this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":247966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-247965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hollywood"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}