Celine Dion Says ‘Drugs and Bad Influence’ Killed Whitney Houston on ‘Good Morning America’

Whitney and Celine

Celine Dion called it as she sees it this morning on Good Morning America today.  The Titanic-singer called in to the morning show early today to voice her opinion on the death of Whitney Houston.

via ABC:

“It’s just really unfortunate that drugs, bad people or bad influence took over. It took over [Whitney]’s dreams. It took over her love and motherhood.”

Celine called ‘Good Morning America’ on Monday to talk about the late pop singer and offer her two cents about drugs and the entertainment industry. Dion continued:

“When you think about Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe and Michael Jackson and Amy Winehouse, to get into drugs like that, for whatever reason… Is it because of the stress and bad influence? What happens when you have everything? What happens when you have love, support, the family, motherhood? You have responsibilities of a mother and then something happens and it destroys everything.”

“That’s why I don’t do parties and I don’t hang out. That’s why I’m not part of show business. We have to be afraid…Taking pills to go perform and taking pills to wake up and taking pills to go to bed. It’s so unfortunate,” she said.

“I’ve always said you have to have fun and do music and you can never be part of show business because you don’t what it’s going to get yourself into,” Dion continued. “You have to do your work and get out of there.”

A lot of folks are gonna be irritated by Celine's public frankness today.  I have so many thoughts about this subject; let's see if I can actually put them all into something cohesive.

It's being widely reported that Whitney partied hard prior to her assistants finding her lifeless body in that bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.  I chose not to write about her that night, and the questions that were being asked about an apparently bloody and sweaty Whitney leaving a nightclub a couple of days prior to her death.  It was just too sad and tragic to look at those photos, let alone write about Whitney's ongoing decline.

I want to know what your first thought was when you heard of Whitney's death.  Did you automatically assume it was drug-related? I did.  I sure did. The fact that Whitney had lived a rather rough life-style over the past 10-15 years is no secret.  We all saw it played out in the media and even on that god-awful reality show she appeared on with her then-husband Bobby Brown.  (Feel free to look up Bobby's criminal record here, if you have some time on your hands.)

Karen Carpenter

Listen.  Years of drug abuse takes a toll on one's body, the same way that years of anorexia ravages a body.  Technically, Karen Carpenter died of heart failure, right?  But what led up to her heart giving out?  Years and years of abusing her body with laxatives and starvation, that's what.  It's not rocket science. Whitney was dying right in front of our eyes for well over a decade.   A 48 year-old woman doesn't just DIE in a bathtub.  I can only imagine the horror her friends must have endured finding her under water. It's an image I can't get out of my head.  Can you?

The rumors of Whitney taking a crap-load of benzodiazepines (Xanax, Valium and the like) for "anxiety" cannot be ignored.  The years of admitted cocaine use cannot be ignored.  The decades of drug abuse was going to eventually...and quite literally, break Whitney's heart.  There is an extremely hard-hitting piece called "Didn't She Almost Have It All?" written on Salon.com about Whitney's spiral.  I suggest you read the post, if nothing but for a wake-up call.

Oh, and I do know of what I speak--personally, and I've seen it happen to friends and my own family members.  Addiction is the devil.  Add celebrity to the mix and it's got to be a bloody nightmare, just as Celine stated this morning.

I stand by my initial thought:  "Whitney's poor heart just couldn't take it anymore."

God Bless Whitney, Cissy and Bobbi Kristina.