Whitney Houston’s real-life bodyguard on life with troubled star | Global News Avenue

Whitney Houston may be one of the most acclaimed singers of her generation, but David Roberts wasn’t exactly a star when he was asked to be her bodyguard.

“I said ‘Whitney Houston, who is he?'” recalled the former police officer who became a close protection officer.

He subsequently spent six years protecting her as the late superstar traveled the world and is credited with being the inspiration for the 1992 film The Bodyguard, starring Huston and Kevin Costner.

“It was an eye-opener for me because I come from a farming community on the Lynn Peninsula in north Wales.

“Here I am traveling the world with arguably one of the most famous people in the world, so it’s been a very interesting experience,” the 72-year-old said from his home in Palm Beach, Florida.

Twenty-five years later, he has written a book about his time with the star. Died in 2012 at the age of 48.

David joined the RAF Police in 1968 and served in Northern Ireland before joining the North Wales Police in 1972.

He later moved to the Metropolitan Police, finishing his duties as a sergeant in 1988 providing protection for visiting dignitaries and heads of state.

He first met Huston in 1988, when she flew to the UK while working at the U.S. Embassy in London.

He recalled meeting a “most worldly, educated, intelligent, shy young lady”.

“I’m impressed,” he said.

“Even after the long flight from New York to London, her beauty remained outstanding.”

Before the meeting, his daughter told him about her career and he went out and bought some of her music.

“She obviously has the voice of an angel,” he said.

He and Whitney “got along really well” from the beginning.

The job was initially for three months, but he was later asked to be the security director for her trip to the Far East.

“I can’t imagine a high-profile person with such high needs being any easier to care for,” he said.

He said she spent much of her time in the hotel room on the phone with her then-comedian boyfriend Eddie Murphy.

“He’s just as funny off stage as he is on stage, a great guy and I like him,” David said.

He later witnessed her tumultuous relationship with singer Bobby Brown, whom he married in 1992.

Their marriage lasted 15 years.

“To me it’s remarkable that it’s lasted this long,” David said.

“Literally the day of the wedding, everyone involved in security said, ‘Okay guys, we’re going to be back here next year for the divorce party – we really didn’t think this was going to last, but she proved We were all wrong about that.”

As for his own relationship with the superstar, he said he got to know her “to the point where we barely have to talk when we’re in public.”

“I would look at her and know what she was thinking, what she wanted, or if we were in a crowd or I would feel a pull on the back of my jacket and we had to go.”

“There’s always a level of synergy between the protector and the protected,” he said.

He would check into Huston’s hotels under the name Rachel Marron – the name of the character Huston would later play in “The Bodyguard.”

But he insists not everything in the film is lifelike.

In the film, Costner developed a romantic relationship with Huston’s character, but he insisted he was “more of a ‘friendly uncle’ to the star.”

When asked if he would die for her, he was unequivocal.

“Of course,” he said.

“If I do my homework wrong, if my threat assessment, risk management or preparation is wrong, then yes, I will pay the price, yes.”

There are still many risks to assess.

He said that during the tour in the Far East, about 50 fans were considered potential threats.

“The obsessed fans were not just happy to see her, not just happy to be with her, they wanted a piece of her, and from my perspective it was getting a little tedious,” he said.

“We had one who would write a ton of all kinds of insane comments on toilet paper.

“There was a lad in Australia who used to send over his soiled underwear and socks.”

He said the man wrote to say he was going to attend her show in Sydney.

“He gave us his seat number and suggested that when she sang ‘The Greatest Love’ again, he would come on stage to ‘take her to meet his mother in heaven.'”

He was surrounded by plainclothes police, but the concert ended without incident.

“He didn’t move, didn’t show any signs of emotion at all,” David said.

“She finished singing and he stood up and walked out and we haven’t heard from him since.”

This insight into the world of superstardom leads David to question why so many young people chase stardom.

“It was clear to me from the beginning that this level of fame was too expensive,” he said.

He said the only time she could have a normal life was with friends and family or in a hotel room, “otherwise, nothing was normal”.

He said traveling the world with Houston over the years had “taken its toll” on him.

Asked whether the cost would affect his own personal relationships, he said: “You’d have to ask any of my three wives, I’m not entirely sure.”

The work ended abruptly in 1995.

He said he had witnessed Houston’s “gradual but significant deterioration” over the past nine months they had been together.

He said he never saw drug paraphernalia but often witnessed the star in emotional distress.

“There is a problem that needs to be addressed by those who care about her, not just family and friends but the executives who made millions by exploiting her,” he said.

“But the general consensus at the time was that there was no way Houston would undergo rehab because it would damage her reputation and career.”

He said he raised concerns.

“I was told ‘Miss Houston has decided she won’t travel abroad anymore so she doesn’t need a professional like you, but if she decides to travel again we will call you’,” he recalled.

“So that’s how it ended.

“Technically, that was my swan song, that was the bullet I took for her.”

In 2012, at the age of 48, Houston died in his room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. accidental drowning Due to the effects of cocaine use and heart disease.

“It hurts. It’s horrible,” David said.

“You get over the initial shock and then the anger takes over because it’s not deserved.”

In 2015, Bobbi Kristina Brown, the only daughter of Houston and R&B singer Bobby Brown, was found unresponsive in the bathtub of her Georgia home. died six months later.

David remembers Houston being wheeled out of the uniform room with Bobbie in her arms and watching her run around and play games as she grew.

“The only comfort you can take from this whole incident is to believe that she (Houston), her father, her mother and her daughter are reconciled in a place where no one can hurt them again,” David said.

He said he wrote “Whitney: A Memoir of Her Bodyguard” to “dissipate the anger” he felt after Houston’s death.

“The entertainment industry is a beast, it has unrealistic demands. You take a young girl in her 20s and make her so famous, there are demands, you have to make 10 albums in the next five years – but you don’t have time to live it up A normal life,” he said.

“You are part of our money making machine and she is”.