Whitney Houston's estate is furious about Oprah Winfrey's claim that she fell from the stage while performing on her talk show after she allegedly relapsed into drug use.

They confirmed that the singer tumbled over when she appeared on the 72-year-old media mogul's talk show in 2009, but vehemently denied it being linked to her substance abuse, insisting it happened during a dark sound check.

Pat Houston, who runs Whitney's estate, told 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. She was absolutely not high."

While she acknowledged the I Will Always Love You hitmaker's long battle with addiction, Pat added that "like many people, she faced personal battles, but it is inaccurate and unfair to attach that struggle to every performance or every chapter of her life".

She continued: "What the studio audience witnessed on stage was the result of discipline, talent, and commitment - not the assumptions others project.

"Whitney's humanity included triumphs and struggles, but on that day, she showed up as the professional and gifted artist she always worked to be.

"We owe her the dignity of telling the truth, not repeating myths."

During a Cannes Lions presentation on Tuesday (23.06.26), Oprah recalled Whitney's last appearance on her show in September 2009.

Per Variety, she told festival chair Phil Thomas: "We did the whole, 'Hey girl, how you doing?' greeting thing, and then I stopped the cameras, and I went behind stage, and I said, 'So tell me, what do you want to happen here? And I'm gonna tell you what I want to happen here.'

"And that was one of the most powerful interviews."

The talk show host claimed: "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, and she had gone back on drugs.

"The first interview I did with her when we'd gone behind stage, and I asked about her intentions; she was clean. 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."

Oprah "begged" the audience not to tell the media that Whitney fell from the stage to protect the six-time Grammy winner.

She said: "I knew that if that story got out that she'd fallen off the stage, she would be completely destroyed by that.

"And so even though the audience was there, and the audience had cameras, I begged them not to put those pictures up because it would ruin her life, and they did not."

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

Whitney performed I Didn't Know My Own Strength on her last appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show in September 2009, before she accidentally drowned in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, in February 2012 at the age of 48.