In this week’s Newsweek Alison Samuels explains why no one could save Whitney Houston, who died at 48, from herself.

An excerpt:

Houston wrestled with demons, drugs, and heartbreaking betrayals that continued to haunt her even after her lifeless, bloated body was found face down in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton on the eve of the Grammys. Autopsy results revealed just how much self-inflicted damage Houston had done in her 48 years. The scalding bath water had burned her face, and there were bruises on her forehead, chest, and upper lip and numerous scars on her body. Years of cocaine use had burned a hole through her septum, she had heart disease, and toxicology tests showed residue of marijuana, Xanax, Benadryl, and other medications in her system.

Whitney Houston’s Private Hell and Inevitable Death, Newsweek

Long before she married Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston was dogged by questions about her extraordinarily close relationship with her female assistant, best friend, and roommate, Robyn Crawford. Was she a lesbian? That’s unclear, but it does, as Tricia Romano writes on the Beast, “raise the possibly tragic question of how her sexuality, addictions, and eventual death are entwined.”

TIL.

[Johannes Eisele / AP Photo]