Whitney Houston’s real-life bodyguard on life with troubled star

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

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

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

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

David remembered Houston being wheeled out of the livery room with Bobbi in her arms and as she grew, watching her run around playing games.

“The only solace you get from the entire affair is believing that she [Houston], her father, her mother and her daughter are reconciled in a place that no-one could hurt them anymore,” said David.

He said he had written his book, Whitney: The Memoir of Her Bodyguard, to “dissipate the anger” he has carried ever since Houston’s death.

“The entertainment industry is a beast. It has demands that are unrealistic. You take a young 20-odd year old girl and you make them this famous, there are demands, you’ve got to produce 10 albums in the next five years – but where’s the normal life? You haven’t got time for that,” he said.

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