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Since her death, there have been a lot of questions over Whitney Houston’s net worth and who inherited her estate after she died.
Houston, whose full name was Whitney Elizabeth Houston, was born on August 9, 1963, in Newark, New Jersey. Nicknamed “The Voice,” Houston signed to her first record label at 19 years old with Arista Records chairman Clive Davis, who would later become her mentor and close friend. Her first two albums, 1985’s Whitney Houston and 1987’s Whitney, both reached number one on the Billboard 200 and are among the best-selling albums of all time. After her debut, Houston went on to become one of the best-selling music artists of all times, with more than 200 million records sold worldwide. She holds the record as the only music artist in history to have seven consecutive number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, from 1985’s “Saving All My Love For You” to 1988’s “Where Do Broken Hearts Go?” She has two Emmys, six Grammys and 28 Guinness World Records.
Houston made her major blockbuster debut in the 1992 movie, The Bodyguard, which led Houston to a Grammy for Record of the Year for the song “I Will Always Love You” from the movie’s soundtrack. The song holds the record for the best-selling physical single by a woman in music history. Houston also went on to produce movies like 1997’s Cinderella, in which she played the Fairy Godmother. After almost 40 years in the music industry, Houston died on February 11, 2012. She was 48 years old.
So how much was Whitney Houston’s net worth at the time of her death? Read on for what we know about Whitney Houston’s net worth and who inherited her estate after she died.
How much did Whitney Houston make for The Bodyguard?
Image: Warner Brothers/courtesy Everett Collection.
How much did Whitney Houston make for The Bodyguard? Houston made her major blockbuster debut as Rachel Marron in 1992’s The Bodyguard. The movie grossed more than 121.9 million in the United States and Canada and $410.9 million worldwide. It was the second-highest grossing film of 1992 behind Disney’s Aladdin, which opened on the same day. The movie was nominated for two songs at the 1993 Academy Awards in the Best Original Song category: “Run to You” and “I Have Nothing.” The film was also nominated for four awards at the 1995 Grammy Awards and won three, including Record of the Year for “I Will Always Love You” and Album of the Year for its soundtrack.
So…how much did Whitey Houston make for The Bodyguard? While how much Houston made as an actor for The Bodyguard hasn’t been confirmed, Business Insider reported that she made $33 million at the time of her death from the movie’s soundtrack, The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album. The album, which Houston co-executive produced with Clive Davis, sold more than 45 million units worldwide and holds the record for the best-selling soundtrack of all time. It also broke the record for the most weeks at number one by a female artist on the Billboard 200, holding the record for 19 years until Adele’s 21 surpassed it in 2011. With the album, Houston also became the first person to sell more than a million units of an album within a single week period. In an interview with CNN in 2012, Dolly Parton, who wrote “I Will Always Love You” and owns the rights to the song, revealed how her life changed after Houston made the track a hit. “When Whitney did it, I got all the money for the publishing and for the writing, and I bought a lot of cheap wigs,” she said at the time.
What is Whitney Houston’s net worth?
Image: Kevin Winter/Getty Images.
What was Whitney Houston’s net worth at the time of her death? Whitney Houston’s net worth was $20 million when she died, according to Cheat Sheet. Along with what she made from The Bodyguard, Whitney Houston’s net worth also included the $100 million contract she signed with Arista Records in 2001; the $10 million she made for her role as Julia Coleman Biggs in 1995’s The Preacher’s Wife, and the $36 million she grossed for her 2010 Nothing But Love Tour.
In an interview with My9 after her daughter’s death, Houston’s mother, Cissy Houston, responded to a rumor she was “broke” at the time of her death. “Whitney did not die broke … she’s not broke. None of that crap,” she said. Forbes writer Zack O’Malley Greenburg, also responded to the rumor at the time. “There were certainly rumors that Whitney Houston died broke and she didn’t have any significant financial impact in the last couple years of her life,” he told E! News. “It’s been a while since she has put out an album and been on tour, so one could see why towards the end of her life she would be running a bit low on cash.” He continued, “Selling 200 million records, [even] for someone without any publishing royalties, that is still at least a quarter of a billion dollars in earnings.” Forbes reported that the most lucrative time of Houston’s career was between 1993 and 1994 after the release of The Bodyguard. Forbes ranked Houston third on its list of highest-earning female entertainers at the time behind only Oprah Winfrey and Barbra Streisand.
According to property records obtained by E! News, Houston had $2.85 million worth of real estate in her name in the form of two homes in New Jersey at the time of her death. (One home was almost auctioned out from under her in 2006.) Houston also sold a home in Atlanta for $509,875 in 2007 following her divorce from her ex-husband, Bobby Brown. She also sold a home in Florida for $1.35 million in 2005.
Who inherited Whitney Houston’s estate?
Image: Chris Grieve/Mirrorpix/Getty Images.
Who inherited Whitney Houston’s estate? Houston’s estate was inherited by her only child, daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, whom she shared with ex-husband, Bobby Brown. According to USA Today, Houston drafted her will in 1993 after Bobbi Kristina’s birth and made changes to it in April 2000, ensuring that her daughter inherited her whole estate.
The publication reports that, because Bobbi Kristina was 19 years old at the time of Houston’s death, she received 10 percent—or $2 million—of her estate, while the rest was put into a trust fund until she turned 21 years old. According to Houston’s will, Bobbi Kristina would receive another sixth of the estate when she turned 25 years old and the rest when she turned 30 years old. She never turned 25 years old. Bobbi Kristina died on July 26, 2015. She was 22 years old. Her partner, Nick Gordon, and a friend found her face down in a bathtub in her home in Roswell, Georgia, on January 31, 2015 and performed CPR until emergency medical services personnel arrived. Brown, who was still alive and breathing, was then transported to North Fulton Hospital, where she was placed in an induced coma after doctors determined he brain function was “significantly diminished.” She died in hospice care on July 26, 2015 at 22 years old.
After Bobbi Kristina’s death, Houston’s estate went to her mother, Cissy Houston, and her two brothers. Though Cissy was named the executor of Houston’s will, she later renounced the role and requested that Houston’s sister-in-law and manager, Marion “Pat” Houston, become the sole administrator of the estate.
How did Whitney Houston die?
Image: Scott Gries/ImageDirect.
How did Whitney Houston die? Houston died on February 11, 2012, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. She was 48 years old. Her publicist, Kristin Foster, confirmed her death, which occurred hours before she was due to perform at Clive Davis’ annual pre-Grammys party at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. “I can confirm that Whitney Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. We received a call at 3:43 p.m. from hotel security and Beverly Hills fire and police responded minutes later,” Beverly Hills Police Lieutenant Mark Rosen said in a statement to People at the time. “Someone in her entourage found her unresponsive in her room … It’s unclear who notified hotel staff because she has quite an entourage here at the hotel. We attempted to resuscitate her, to no avail.” When asked if there was any evidence of drugs or foul play, Rosen told People at the time, “At this time, there’s no obvious evidence of foul play or cause of death.”
Houston’s cause of death was an accidental drowning, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office confirmed on March 22, 2012. The coroner’s office also reported that Houston had cocaine, marijuana, Xanax, Benadryl and other medications in her system at the time of her death. The investigation found that heart disease and cocaine use were contributing factors for her death.
“There was water found in her lungs that indicated to us that she was alive when she was submerged underwater,” coroner chief Craig Harvey told People at the time. “According to our tests, the level of cocaine was not necessarily a lethal level of cocaine. But her death was complicated by chronic cocaine use and heart disease.” Coroner assistant chief Ed Winter also told People that Houston’s death came down to two scenarios. “She could’ve passed out first due to the intoxication from the cocaine, or she could’ve had a heart attack and then drowned,” he said. “It’s probably one of those two scenarios.” Coroner officials also confirmed that prescription pill bottles were found in Houston’s room, but the number of pills were “not in alarming amounts.”
A source told People at the time that Houston seemed “out of it” three days before her death at the Beverly Hilton. “She seemed like she was on something,” the insider said. The Los Angeles Times also reported that Houston “appeared disheveled in mismatched clothes,” with wet and sweaty hair, the next day for rehearsals for Clive Davis’ pre-Grammys party. “The singer smelled of alcohol and cigarettes,” the Los Angeles Times reported at the time, adding Houston “displayed erratic behavior” by “flailing her hands” while speaking to singers Brandy and Monica before “wandering aimlessly” around the lobby.
A source also told People that Houston was “twitching her nose constantly” and ranting to Monica about what she was supposed to wear to Davis’ party. “I don’t wear no blue,” she said, according to People’s source. “I don’t want no goddamn blue.” The magazine also reported that, another pre-Grammys event at TRU Hollywood, Houston’s vocals sounded shaky as she sang a duet with Kelly Price. The Hollywood Reporter also reported at the time that Houston “got belligerent” with singer Stacy Francis after not recognizing her.
Image: Harper Paperbacks.
For more about Whitney Houston, read her mother Cissy Houston’s biography, Remembering Whitney: My Story of Love, Loss, and the Night the Music Stopped. The New York Times bestseller—which includes a foreword by her collaborator and cousin Dionne Warwick—takes readers through Whitney’s “astonishing life, ground-breaking career and tragic death” told from the “only one who truly knows” her story: her mother. The book, which includes never-before-seen photographs of Whitney throughout her life, also sees Cissy open up for the first time about her daughter’s death, as well as Whitney’s darkest moments, from her turbulent marriage to Bobby Brown to her misunderstood struggles with drug abuse. “Cissy goes behind the tabloid headlines to show fans around the world the true, human side of a strong, successful—yet flawed—musical icon who died much too young,” the publisher’s description reads.
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