" A brand new Whitney Houston documentary has alleged the singer was sexually abused as a child.

Directed by Scottish filmmaker Kevin Macdonald, Whitney - which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival - claims that the singing icon was abused by her cousin Dee Dee Warwick.

The allegations are made in the documentary by Houston's half-brother, former NBA basketball player Gary Garland-Houston, as well as her assistant Mary Jones.

According to The Guardian, Garland-Houston alleges - alongside her former manager Pat Houston - that he was abused by Warwick between the ages of seven and nine when Whitney would have been just three or four-years-old. Jones reportedly claims that Houston used to speak of being "molested at a young age" by a woman.

Dee Dee Warwick, who enjoyed success as a gospel performer in the early 70s, was the niece of Houston's mother. Her older sister was soul-singing legend Dionne Warwick.

Whitney, described as"the definitive story" of the legendary singer, is said to feature interviews with a variety of Houston's relatives and friends.

Macdonald, speaking about the claims, told Deadline: "I first began to suspect that there might be some kind of abuse involved before anyone had actually told me. I just had a sense, having sat watching interviews about her, watching footage of her. I had a feeling that there was something wrong with her.

"That was just an intuition, and then somebody mentioned it off-camera to me. They wouldn’t talk about it on camera, but they said Whitney had said to her that something had happened."

Houston - one of the most successful recording artists of all time - passed away in 2012 at the age of 48 after drowning in a bathtub. Three years later, her daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, was found unresponsive in a bathtub and died aged 22 after spending six months in a coma

Whitney will be released in UK cinemas on 6 July"

Link to Independent UK Article:

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/whitney-houston-dee-dee-warwick-child-sex-abuse-claims-dionne-documentary-kevin-mcdonald-a8355426.html