Whitney Houston Opens Up to Oprah about Her Tumultuous Life

Whitney Houston’s candid interview with Oprah this week let the world in on the pop diva’s troubled recent past and her hope for the future.

Whitney Houston sat down with Oprah Winfrey for a long, candid conversation earlier this week to kick off the 24th season of the TV industry mogul’s namesake talk show. The interview was partially a promotion for the new album I Look to You, Houston’s first in seven years.

But, the two women also mined territory that the troubled pop singer had long stayed silent about, including her drug abuse and strife with ex-husband Bobby Brown. Houston told Oprah that in 2002, she had considered dropping her career and moving to an obscure island to open a fruit stand.

“I have been all around the world … and I’d done it all at that point in time, or I thought,” Houston said. “However, I wasn’t remembering the gift that God had given me. I had totally put all that aside. And my daughter was growing up before my eyes, and I just wanted to grab hold of that. At that time in my life, I was going through such trauma.”

Times are certainly better for the singer, and she looks it. Houston, now 46, is rumored to have undergone some plastic surgery in preparation for her album comeback, although it isn’t something she’s talked about.

Indeed, Houston’s face does look smooth and wrinkle-free – and, to some trained eyes, unnaturally so. A report last year on MakeMeHeal.com noted that Houston appeared to be “untouched by wrinkles on her forehead or crow’s feet around the eyes or even smile lines around her mouth.” Likewise, her cheeks and eyes seemed unaffected by gravity, suggesting she may have had a face lift, or at least Botox injections and dermal fillers, to keep her skin looking taught.

Houston also raised speculation that she had undergone a breast augmentation in recent years. During several recent appearances on the red carpet, Whitney has flaunted what one plastic surgeon described as “the two half-grapefruit look”, with her preternaturally firm, perfectly round breasts smashed into place by the bodice of her evening gown.

Maybe such cosmetic choices are trivial, in this case. Houston has had a more troubled public life than many – and from how she sounds now, she’s riding an upswing.

“I love the spirit of God so much that I’m not willing to trade that for anything,” she told Oprah. “I’m not trading that for nothing. For nothing. Because I feel joy that I can’t even speak about. And peace that passes all understanding.”