WHITNEY HOUSTON: BFF Robyn Crawford Tells Her Story

Whitney Houston‘s BFF shares details of their deep friendship in a new book.

Robyn Crawford, who first met the future star when they were teenage camp counselors, admits in an excerpt published by People magazine that they shared a physical relationship — which Whitney ended in 1982, just before her career took off.

In A Song for You: My Life With Whitney Houston, Crawford explains, “I’d come to the point where I felt the need to stand up for our friendship. And I felt an urgency to stand up and share the woman behind the incredible talent.”

Though Crawford does not define the relationship as sexual, only close and physical, it appears she desired more. “We wanted to be together — and that meant just us.” But Whitney told her, “We shouldn’t be physical anymore, because it would make our journey even more difficult.”

Times were different three-plus decades ago, and Crawford went along with Houston’s decision, “She said if people find out about us, they would use this against us…and back in the ’80s that’s how it felt.”

Writing the book to “set the record straight about who Whitney truly was,” Robyn Crawford seeks “to lift her legacy, give her respect and share the story of who she was before the fame.”

A Song for You: My Life With Whitney Houston will be published next Tuesday.