Oprah Winfrey admits she begged talk show audience to bury footage of Whitney Houston onstage fall

Oprah Winfrey is shedding new light on Whitney Houston's troubled final years, revealing that the late singer fell off the stage while performing during a 2009 taping of "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

During a recent appearance at Cannes Lions, where she was honored with the LionHeart Award, the 72-year-old former talk show host spoke out about the previously undisclosed incident, which she said occurred after Houston relapsed amid her longtime battle with drug addiction.

"This was an amazing thing that happened. I had such trust from the 'Oprah Show' audience that Whitney did, I think, what was her last show with us. She had gone back on drugs," Winfrey said in a clip shared on social media by Variety.

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"The first interview I did with her when we'd gone behind stage and I asked about her intentions, she was clean," the TV icon continued. "But the day she came to my show to perform in front of the audience, she was not, and she fell off of the stage."

Winfrey said she took immediate steps to prevent the incident from becoming public, fearing that exposure of Houston's fall would further damage the singer at a vulnerable point in her life.

"I knew that if that story got out … she would be destroyed by that," Winfrey said. "And so even though the audience was there, and the audience had cameras, I begged them not to put those pictures out because it would ruin her life, and they did not."

"That would not happen today, I can tell you that," she added.

Houston had appeared on the show as part of her highly publicized 2009 comeback following years out of the spotlight and intense public scrutiny over her personal life.

At the time, Houston was promoting "I Look to You," her first studio album in seven years following 2002's "Just Whitney." During her appearance, she performed one of the songs from the album, "I Didn't Know My Own Strength." Winfrey said the fall occurred during that performance.

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During her interview with Winfrey, Houston discussed her marriage to Bobby Brown, fame and the challenges of living in the public eye.

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The six-time Grammy Award winner also opened up about her addiction struggles, admitting to heavy drug use during parts of her career and speaking about her efforts to rebuild her life.

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The highly anticipated two-part Oprah special marked Houston's first major television interview in years.

Looking back on her conversation with Houston, Winfrey told the audience at Cannes Lions that it was "one of the most powerful interviews."

"I Look to You" was released in August 2009 and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. It would ultimately become the last studio album released during Houston's lifetime.

Houston died in February 2012 at age 48. Her cause of death was ruled an accidental drowning, with heart disease and cocaine use listed as contributing factors.