Whitney Houston’s Real Bodyguard Opens Up About Living With a Troubled Star

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

“I said, ‘Whitney Houston, who is he?'” the former police sergeant turned close protection officer recalls.

He then spent six years protecting the late superstar as she traveled the world and believes he was the inspiration for the 1992 film The Bodyguard, starring Houston and Kevin Costner.

“It was an eye-opener knowing that I come from a farming community at the tip of North Wales on the Llyn Peninsula.

“And here I am traveling around the world with arguably one of the most famous people in the world, so it was quite an interesting experience,” said the 72-year-old, speaking from his home in Palm Beach, Florida.

Twenty-five years later, he wrote a book about his time with the star who died at the age of 48 in 2012.

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

He then transferred to the Met Police, finishing his service in 1988 as a sergeant providing protection for visiting dignitaries and heads of state.

It was while working for the American Embassy in London in 1988 that he first met Houston after his flight to the United Kingdom.

He remembers meeting “a very sophisticated, educated, intelligent and shy young woman.”

“I was singularly impressed,” he said.

“Her beauty was exceptional, even after the long flight from New York to London.”

Before the meeting, his daughter had updated him on her career and he had gone out and bought some of her music.

“She definitely had the voice of an angel,” he said.

He and Whitney “got along famously” from the start.

The initial job lasted three months, but he was then asked to become security director for his Far East tour.

“I can’t imagine that such a high-profile, in-demand personality would be easier to maintain,” he said.

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

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

He would later witness her tumultuous relationship with singer Bobby Brown, whom she married in 1992.

They remained married for 15 years.

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

“Actually, on the day of the wedding, everyone who was involved in security there said, ‘OK guys, we’ll come back here next year for the divorce party. We really didn’t think it would last and yet she proved us all wrong.”

As for his own relationship with the megastar, he said he got to know her “to the extent that there was very little need for conversation when we were in public.”

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

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

He would check Houston into hotels using the name Rachel Marron – the name of the character Houston would play in The Bodyguard.

But he insisted that not everything in the film is so true to life.

In the film, Costner and Houston’s characters develop a romance, but he insisted he was “more like a ‘caring uncle’ to the star.”

When asked if he would have died for her, he is unequivocal.

“Of course,” he said.

“If I had done my homework wrong, if I had wrongly assessed threats or risk management or preparedness, then yes, I would have paid for that, yes.”

And there were many risks to assess.

During the Far East tour, he said around 50 fans were considered a potential threat.

“The obsessed fans weren’t just happy to see her, not just happy to be in her presence, they wanted a piece of her, and that’s where it gets a little boring from my point of view,” he declared.

“We had one who wrote tons and tons of all sorts of comments about mental illness on toilet paper.

“There was a guy in Australia who sent his dirty underwear and socks.”

He said the man wrote that he would attend his show in Sydney.

“He gave us her seat number and told us that when she sang the encore Greatest Love of All, he would go on stage and ‘take her to meet her mother in heaven’.”

He was surrounded by undercover agents but the concert ended without problem.

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

“She finished singing, he got up, he left, we’ve never heard from him since.”

This insight into the world of the mega-famous made David wonder why so many young people seek fame.

“From the beginning, it was obvious to me that this level of fame was too high a price to pay,” he said.

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

He said the years spent following Houston around the world “also took a toll” on him.

Asked if this had an impact on his own personal relationships, he replied: “You’d have to ask one of my three wives, I’m not entirely sure.”

The work ended abruptly in 1995.

He said that in the last nine months they were together, he witnessed Houston’s “gradual but obvious deterioration.”

He said he never saw drug paraphernalia, but frequently saw the star in emotional distress.

“There was a problem that needed to be addressed by those who cared for her, not just her family and friends, but also the executives who made millions from exploiting her to this extent,” he said .

“But the general consensus at the time was that Houston could not undergo rehabilitation because it would damage his reputation and career.”

He said he raised his concerns.

“I was told ‘Miss Houston has decided she will no longer travel abroad, so she doesn’t need someone of your expertise, but if she ever decides to travel again, we will call you ‘”, he remembers.

“So that was the end.

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

In 2012, at just 48 years old, Houston died in her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in accidental drowning due to the effects of cocaine use and heart disease.

“It hurt. It was terrible,” David said.

“You get over the initial shock and then anger takes over because it shouldn’t have happened.”

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

David remembers Houston being taken out of the delivery room with Bobbi in his arms and as she grew, he watched her run around and play games.

“The only comfort you get from this whole thing 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 his book, Whitney: The Memoir of Her Bodyguard, to “dispel the anger” he had carried since Houston’s death.

“The entertainment industry is a beast. It has demands that are unrealistic. You take a young girl in her twenties and you make her this famous, there are demands, you have to produce 10 albums within next five years. but where is normal life? You don’t have time for that,” he said.

“You are part of our money-making machine and that’s what it was.”