Whitney Houston's Former Personal Assistant Alleges the Star was Molested by a Female Family Member in 'Whitney'

A particularly disturbing, formerly untold story behind the troubles of Whitney Houston has been revealed in the upcoming doc about her life.

In the new documentary,Whitney, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this week, the singer's personal assistant Mary Jones revealed that Whitney was molested by her cousin Dee Dee Warwick (sister of soul singer Dionne Warwick) as a child, and that it likely sparked her substance abuse later on in life. According to Associated Press, Houston's brother Gary says he also was abused between the ages of seven and nine by a female relative.

The abuse allegedly caused Houston to question her own sexual identity. Houston was said to have been in a romantic relationship with Robyn Crawford, a former assistant, prior to marrying Bobby Brown. Dee Dee, who sang background vocals for Aretha Franklin, died in 2008. Though Whitney has never spoken on the abuse publicly, she has been quoted saying that the one thing that makes her angry is child abuse. "I hate to see kids...it bothers me that children, who are helpless, who depend on adults for security and love, it just bothers me," she says, according to Vanity Fair.

In the film, Jones also reveals that Houston's mother Cissy Houston wasn't aware of her daughter's molestation until after Whitney died. Whitney was believed to have insisted that Cissy would "hurt somebody if [she] told her who it was."

The documentary's producer Simon Chuck says that the details of Whitney's abuse and other parts of her troubled past will, "get people to a deeper understanding of who Whitney was and in many ways redeem her as a person."

Whitney will be released in theaters July 7, 2018.

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