Chaka Khan speaks. The undisputed Queen of Funk described in a recent interview the pain of reliving Whitney Houston‘s sudden death after the diva’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, was found facedown and unresponsive in a bathtub of her Roswell, Ga., home on Jan. 31.
“I can’t say I was shocked,” Khan, 62, a close friend of the late Houston, told The Mirror UK this past weekend. “But I was definitely hurt, disappointed.”
While Bobbi Kristina, 22, remains in a medically induced coma, Khan (nee Yvette Stevens) has been in touch with the R&B scion’s family members, many of whom have rallied for prayer and support in a bleak situation.
“I’ve been in conversation with the family,” Khan told the paper. “Everyone’s devastated, everyone. I love Bobbi Kristina, I love Whitney, I love Bobby Brown. I love Cissy — I love them all. But we just have to wait for what happens next. All I want to do is be there for them. I just need to pray.”
Khan — who let Houston cover her smash single “I’m Every Woman” for the 1992 Bodyguard soundtrack — said she felt the late diva’s pain. “Whitney would be devastated,” Khan told the paper. “I wish she was here… You really don’t know what this is like for a mother until it happens to you. I think I’m pretty close to feeling what she would have felt and what she’s feeling right now, wherever she is.”
Just last Wednesday, Mar. 25, Bobbi Kristina’s maternal grandmother Cissy Houston broke her silence on the star’s condition. “She’s the same,” Cissy said of Krissy to New York radio station WBLS FM 107.5. “We’ve moved her to a place for rehabilitation. And you know, still not a great deal of hope. [We’re] still praying.”
While Bobbi Kristina remains in a coma, her longtime love Nick Gordon has checked into rehab for drug and alcohol abuse after Dr. Phil staged an intervention last month. Meanwhile, police have told Us Weekly that Bobbi Kristina’s case is being treated as a criminal investigation.
