Whitney Houston's sister-in-law has shed light on the late singer's bust-up with a reality TV star at a party two days before her death last month (Feb12), insisting the encounter "didn't feel right".
Former The X Factor contestant Stacy Francis went public the week after Houston's death on 11 February (12) to reveal she became embroiled in a spat with the singer at songwriter Kenny Lattimore's pre-Grammys party.
Francis was upset when her idol reprimanded her for interrupting a conversation in the Vip area of Los Angeles nightclub Tru, and claims they almost came to blows after Houston started behaving like "a wild animal".
The 42-year-old single mother alleges the catfight erupted after she began chatting to Houston's on-off boyfriend Ray J.
Speaking about the incident for the first time, Stacy told Britain's Daily Mirror: "Ray had come over to me when he got there and he hugged me and said congratulations on The X Factor... But I don't think Whitney understood. She was out of control. She put her hand in my face. She was screaming at me and called me a b**ch. She just went crazy - like Jekyll and Hyde. I turned to look at her and she pushed my forehead and turned my face away.
"I grabbed her hand and said, 'Please don't do this. You're everything to me. You're my idol, you're a legend.' I was crying and screaming out, we were both screaming until eventually we were pulled apart."
Patricia Houston, who accompanied her sister-in-law to the party, now reveals Francis' efforts to stay close to the legend all night was unnerving.
In a new TV interview with Oprah Winfrey, which aired in America on Sunday night (11Mar12), Patricia says, "There were words back and forth... She comes over and she says hello, but you keep seeing her. Every corner that we go to, here she comes. We didn't know her.
"I don't know what the initial conversation was... (but) it didn't feel right... I saw expressions, I saw tears and I'm saying to myself, 'OK, it's time to go.' She (Houston) didn't want to leave."
The photos taken as Houston left the party appeared to show the singer distressed and her manager angry, but Patricia insists there was no fight, as some news outlets have reported.
She recalled, "They had words... but there was no physical fighting. I would never let that happen."