Whitney Houston’s real-life bodyguard sets record straight on romance after inspiring film

The real-life former bodyguard of Whitney Houston has publicly addressed the nature of his relationship with the late singer.

Former policeman David Roberts, a 73-year-old Welshman, worked as a close protection officer for Houston from 1988 until 1995, when she was one of the biggest stars on the planet.

Their bond in part inspired her huge 1992 movie The Bodyguard, in which Kevin Costner played bodyguard Frank Farmer to Houston’s musical chart-topper Rachel Marron.

Roberts, who has written a memoir – Protecting Whitney: The Memoir of Her Bodyguard – revealed that there was a time he was tempted to ‘give up everything’ and cross the line from professional to personal relationship, if he had had the chance, when the How Will I Know singer ‘affectionately’ laid her head on his shoulder.

However, he confirms there was no romantic element to their relationship in the end, unlike in the movie.

‘As a close protection officer, I was absolutely focused on keeping her safe. If you cross that line, you lose your objectivity and that makes it dangerous for the person you’re protecting,’ he told the Daily Mail.

‘That was why Frank Farmer and Rachel Marron couldn’t be together – he crossed the line and that was the end of him in the capacity of what he was employed to do,’ he added of the film’s emotional climax where the lovers part ways.

Roberts also says that ‘much of what was contained in the film, she and I actually lived through’.

‘Little details such as the character Rachel Marron holding on to the back of his shirt to escape crowds of fans. That was how we did it.’

‘Rachel Marron’ was also the name Roberts used to book the star into hotels when she was travelling, he shares.

The retired security professional – now based in Florida – also admitted he wasn’t really interested in working for Houston when it was first suggested, given his career with the police.

He had previously been involved with the Iranian embassy siege in 1980 in London and received sniper training when he served in Northern Ireland, and expected Houston to be ‘spoiled and difficult’.

However, he was proven totally wrong, remembering her as ‘gracious, shy, introverted, well-mannered and one of the most beautiful women I had ever met’ upon their first encounter in Heathrow airport when the star was 23.

Despite protecting her from numerous threats over the years – a ‘deranged fans list’ kept by Roberts reached 50 names – he poignantly reveals he was unable to ‘protect her from herself’.

Roberts claims he was fired after reaching out to her lawyers in a desperate move after she overdosed on the set of the film Waiting to Exhale in 1995.

He advised them of members in her team who he claims were feeding her addiction by providing her with drugs, before being fired a week later and never seeing her again.

Houston would die from accidental drowning in her bathtub aged 48 in February 2012, in an incident that may have been spurred by heart disease and cocaine found in her system.

Her Bodyguard co-star Costner, with whom she had formed a close friendship during the making of the movie, read the eulogy at her funeral.

Their film together grossed over $400million (£319m), making it a confirmed blockbuster, while the film’s soundtrack sold over 45m copies, making it Huston’s highest-selling album and the best-selling soundtrack ever.

Songs featured on it included Run to You, Queen of the Nigh, I Have Nothing and her iconic cover of Dolly Parton’s song I Will Always Love You, which became Houston’s defining track thanks to her powerhouse vocals.

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