Legendary singer Dionne Warwick has admitted she felt like she ”lost a part” of herself when Whitney Houston died in tragic circumstances in 2012.
The 74-year-old singer was the cousin of the troubled music legend – who drowned in the bathtub at a hotel in Beverly Hills in 2012, aged just 48 – and although she has felt great pain over her passing, Dionne believes Whitney’s death – which toxicology results showed was caused by heart disease linked to her drug use – was down to the will of God.
”I felt like I lost a part of me when Whitney left me, but there was nothing that anyone could have done. That was Whitney’s choice, unfortunately, and that was also the plan. That was God’s plan.
”She was relieved of all the anxiety and traumas being plagued upon her.”
The easy listening legend, made famous for her interpretations of the songbook of Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David, is currently having to face up to the prospect of losing Whitney’s 22-year-old daughter Bobbi Kristina, who remains unconscious five months after she was discovered face down in a bath at her home in Georgia.
Spookily, Dionne herself was in hospital for two weeks following a serious fall in the shower at her New Jersey home in January.
Dionne admits any death is a ”very difficult thing” to cope with, but she is philosophical about the situation.
In an interview with the Daily Mirror, she said: ”God has a plan for everybody, for better or different. Of course, any death within my family is a very difficult thing, no matter who it is.
”You’re losing a part of you. Everybody that’s gone before me has taken a part of me with them.”
