Mo’Nique criticizes Oprah for speaking about Houston’s alleged drug use when she can’t defend herself.
Rickey Smiley condemns Oprah and Gayle King for discussing personal struggles of public figures.
Whitney’s estate refutes Oprah’s claims, stating her fall was due to stage lighting, not drug use.
Mo’Nique is offering some “correction” to her forever foe, Oprah, this time after the media mogul’s highly criticized remarks about the late, great Whitney Houston.
Source: Steve Granitz/ Vince Bucci/ Michael Loccisano
During a recent appearance on the My Husband Is My Best Friend YouTube channel, the comedian and Oscar winner was asked her thoughts on Oprah’s allegation that Houston had fallen offstage during a taping of her show due to alleged drug use.
“How do you speak about someone that can’t defend it?,” said Mo’Nique. “That, in my humble opinion, makes it different because that woman can’t say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and now you just want everybody to take your word. That, I believe, is unfair.”
“I still love my sister, Oprah Winfrey, let me be clear about that. People think in correction that means you don’t love. It’s simply just correction.”
It’s not the first time Mo’Nique has mentioned Oprah in the name of “correction.”
Many may recall that the two, along with Tyler Perry and Lee Daniels, have had a longstanding and public feud since they collaborated on the 2009 film, Precious. Daniels and Mo’Nique have since made amends and worked together on the Netflix film The Deliverance (2024); however, the comedian and actress have held on to their assessment that Oprah wronged them during the promotion of Precious and have refused to allow her to be properly compensated.
Oprah’s remarks on the beloved Nippy have been met with pushback, as many people shared the same sentiments as Mo’Nique. Comedian and radio host Rickey Smiley, whose own son struggled with drug use before his untimely passing in 2023 by accidental overdose, spoke out against Oprah’s decision to share the alleged incident and called her bestie and fellow journalist Gayle King to the carpet as well.
“I don’t care if she was high,” Smiley said in a livestream. “Whitney Houston is gone and she meant a lot to us. Whitney Houston was a big sister to a lot of us and she is , pretty much, Black America’s auntie. And everybody got a Whitney Houston in their family; somebody that they love, that’s talented. It’s something about Whitney Houston’s death, we took her death personally. We don’t care about none that [the alleged incident], that was something we didn’t need to know. Whitney Houston is someone you just don’t talk about in the Black community, if you’re in touch.”
“That’s Black royalty that you just don’t talk about. We don’t play about Whitney Houston. I don’t care what her downfalls were, we all have downfalls. We all have have had people we know or family members struggle with addiction. Why would you bring that stuff up? Why is it when it comes to you and Gayle—I remember when Kobe Bryant died she interviewed Lisa Leslie and asked her about a sexual assault charge he was found innocent of—why do y’all like to bring this stuff up? You asked the audience not to take pictures of it only for you to bring it up? Y’all are so out of touch with the Black community.”
The story got even more eyebrow-raising when Houston’s estate, led by her sister-in-law Pat Houston, released a statement refuting the claims made by Oprah. According to Houston, Whitney’s fall was due to an improperly lit stage, not to her drug use.
“From the 2009 interview on the Oprah Winfrey show, Whitney absolutely fell off stage, but it was during a sound check and it was due to the darkness of the area and her unfamiliarity with the stage,” the statement reads per the Hollywood Reporter. “She was absolutely not high. This story was picked up by several media outlets. Like many people, she faced personal battles, but it is inaccurate and unfair to attach that struggle to every performance or every chapter of her life.”
She continued,
“Whitney’s humanity included triumphs and struggles, but on that day, she showed up as the professional and gifted artist she always worked to be. We owe her the dignity of telling the truth, not repeating myths.”
Neither Oprah nor her team has commented on the statement from Whitney’s estate nor issued a retraction.
