When Eddie Murphy tried to stop Whitney Houston from marrying Bobby Brown on their wedding day

9 August 2024, 14:52

Eddie Murphy tried to convince Whitney Houston she was making a huge mistake by marrying Bobby Brown. Picture: Getty

By Thomas Edward

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She never had the greatest of luck when it came to relationships.

For people who know Whitney Houston, she was a pop star of spectacular talent, possessing a powerful and evocative voice like no other.

But away from the stage and the studio, her personal life was consistently embroiled in turmoil.

More often than not, the source of her personal strife was the tumultuous relationship she was in with rapper Bobby Brown.

The pair's well-documented issues with drugs and public domestic disputes turned them into tabloid fodder, often overshadowing Whitney's accomplishments as a pop icon.

At one point, they both began using cocaine and heroin, which all but derailed Whitney's career. Of course, she made several comebacks as her talent always shone through.

However, her issues with substance abuse would continue to loom over her. Even after she and Bobby divorced in 2007, she was plagued by addiction until the day she died on 11th February 2012.

But it could've been an entirely different story for Whitney, especially as former flame Eddie Murphy tried to convince her she was making the wrong decision on their wedding day.

Whitney Houston and Eddie Murphy dated in the late eighties. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images). Picture: Getty

Throughout the late eighties, comedy superstar Eddie Murphy and Whitney dated, reportedly falling head over heels for one another.

Whitney's friend Ellen White told People magazine that the late 'I Will Always Love You' icon was so besotted with Murphy, that she made her friends watch his 1988 film Coming To America on multiple occasions.

"I watched them once at a party, Eddie came in, cameras were flashing and they just looked at each other and talked and laughed like they were the only two people in the room."

Houston was infatuated with Eddie, according to her closest friend Robyn Crawford, who revealed the extent of her adoration for the Beverly Hills Cop actor in her 2019 book A Song for You: My Life With Whitney Houston.

Whitney married Bobby Brown in 1992, but their marriage was mired with personal turmoil. (Photo by L. Cohen/WireImage). Picture: Getty

Even in 1989 when Bobby Brown was pursuing Whitney, Robyn claims she was more interested in Eddie still.

And she knew Whitney better than most - not only was Crawford her best friend, but she was also her former personal assistant and creative director.

"She was more interested in Eddie Murphy, but he was elusive," Robyn wrote, saying that Whitney "lost herself" in pining after Murphy.

In the book she describes one particular night where Eddie had arranged to visit Whitney for dinner at her New Jersey mansion.

"One day when Eddie was supposed to come for dinner, I caught a glimpse of Whitney," writes Crawford.

"She was wearing a black dress and low-heeled slingbacks. For a moment, I thought 'Boy, I wish she was doing that for me'."

At that point she reiterates, that their romantic fling had been over by several years. Unfortunately Eddie "never showed up that night" which left Whitney devastated by the rejection.

Eddie Murphy and Whitney Houston with her manager, Clive Davis. Picture: Alamy

Once a potential reunion with Eddie Murphy was dead in the water, Whitney focused her full efforts on the relationship with Bobby Brown.

The future married couple first met at the Soul Train Music Awards in 1989 when Brown was just twenty years old.

They struck up an immediate friendship, which evolved romantically, with Bobby proposing to Whitney in 1991.

On 18th July 1992, Whitney and Bobby were due to marry at her estate. But on that very morning, she received a phone call from Eddie.

"[That day] Eddie Murphy called to say she was making a mistake," Crawford wrote in her book, "but she pressed ahead."

Obviously, Murphy thought their marriage was a bad idea, though he couldn't have predicted the negative impact it'd have on Whitney's life and career.

She became more isolated as their troubles worsened, with Bobby's drug abuse and jealousy over Whitney's talent boiling over in a bout of domestic violence. In 2003 he was charged with battery after an altercation with Houston.

Their relationship wouldn't last with Whitney eventually filing for divorce in 2006, which was finalised in 2007.

But if she'd listened to Murphy, it could have been a very different story entirely.