NEED TO KNOW
Winnie Harlow is clearing the air about the intention behind her Halloween costume of Whitney Houston.
After receiving blowback for her recreation of the late singer’s appearance at the 2001 BET Awards, the model — who both dressed up as Houston and posted a corresponding video of her reenacting the icon’s famous acceptance speech for that year’s Lifetime Achievement Award — posted a lengthy message to her Instagram Stories on Nov. 2 clarifying that she wasn’t “mocking Whitney.”
“That clip has always been one of my favorite of hers. She was radiant, funny, confident and captivating. She was being awarded. The way she moved across that stage with flair and swag? Iconic,” Harlow, 31, began.
Winnie Harlow/Instagram
The Cay Skin founder additionally shared that the phrase, “You better lay low,” a line in Houston’s speech, is “something I say at least once a week.”
She continued by sharing how revered the “I Have Nothing” singer, who died at 48 from accidental drowning in February 2012, was in her household. “My mother is one of her biggest fans and named me Whitney after her, that’s my real legal name. She’s always been a queen in my house,” wrote Harlow.
“People are more than headlines,” she continued. “A woman who could command a room, make you laugh & carry herself like royalty. If all you see when you see Whitney are her struggles, you’re missing her charisma, humor, talent, personality & wit. She was hilarious & magnetic. THAT is and what should always be highlighted. The light that made us all love her. Attention to positivity.”
Harlow’s uncanny transformation into Houston was widely praised in the comment section of her Instagram and TikTok posts, with celebrities including Naomi Campbell, Halle Berry, Ciara, Tracee Ellis Ross, Rita Ora and Law Roach among those complimenting her costume and impersonation.
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However, others expressed their distaste at Harlow’s seemingly caricatured impersonation, one TikTok user writing: “Dressing up and acting as Whitney during one of the most painful, humiliating, and vulnerable periods of her life, it isn’t honoring her. It’s mocking her suffering. It’s exploiting trauma for entertainment…”
Houston experienced drug addiction throughout her career. Friends and family who spoke with PEOPLE around the time of her death said that there were two Whitney Houstons: the pop princess groomed by Arista president Clive Davis, and the girl from Newark, N.J., who rebelled against pressures to be perfect by turning to drugs in her early 20s.
“There were a lot of expectations in terms of who she was and who people thought she was,” a close family friend told PEOPLE in 2016. “I think not being able to be herself 100 percent was a hell of a burden for her to have to carry. Someone may look good on the outside, sturdy and strong . . . [but] on the inside, you have someone who had insecurities and family issues and emotional personal issues and struggles.”
M. Caulfield/WireImage
An investigation conducted around Houston’s death reported heart disease and cocaine as contributing factors. The report also found that Houston had marijuana, Xanax, Benadryl and other medication in her system.
Houston entered rehab multiple times throughout her adult life, but struggled with addiction until it ultimately contributed to her death. “She was in pain from all the pressure she was facing and the pain from living almost a double life,” said a record executive who worked with her. “She was doing ridiculous amounts of hard drugs and sacrificed her God-given talents for that.”
