Oprah: I Hid That Whitney Houston Fell Off My Stage

Oprah Winfrey says there's one Whitney Houston moment from her talk-show days that never made the tabloids, because Winfrey asked her studio audience not to leak it. Speaking at the Cannes Lions festival, where she received the LionHeart Award, Winfrey recalled an Oprah Winfrey Show performance in which Houston, whom she believed had relapsed back into drug addiction, fell off the stage, per Variety. Winfrey said she immediately understood the potential fallout: "I knew that if that story got out ... she would be destroyed by that."

Winfrey told the Cannes Lions crowd that she pleaded with audience members, many holding cameras, not to share it. "It would ruin her life, and they did not [share it]," she said, adding, "That would not happen today." People reports that the incident took place in September 2009, during Houston's final appearance on Winfrey's show. Houston's estate isn't taking too kindly to Winfrey's revelation, reports TMZ. "Whitney absolutely fell off the stage, but it was during a sound check, and it was due to the darkness of the area and her unfamiliarity with the stage," a spokesperson says. "She was absolutely not high." More here on Winfrey's speech.