Cissy Houston: Whitney Was Not Broke When She Died

April 3, 2012— -- For the first time since Whitney Houston's death two months ago, the singer's grieving mother set the record straight about the pop icon, saying she was not broke when she died and blaming the media for false information about her daughter.

Cissy Houston, 78, a gospel singing music legend in her own right, sat down for an interview with local northern New Jersey television station WWOR to discuss her only daughter's life and death.

"I know I did the best I could … I don't blame myself. I know I did the best I could for everything," she told WWOR'S Brenda Blackmon. "My children are my whole life. She was very special to me, very special. She was my only daughter, and a good one."

Speaking of her daughter's final days and the aftermath, Cissy Houston said that media misinformation lead to people from her past thinking they know what had ultimately happened to the pop star.

""The media are awful. People have come from here and there, [and they] don't know what they're talking about. People I haven't seen in 20 years. ... Here they come, [they] think they know everything, but that's not true," she said. "But God has his way of taking care of all of it, and I'm glad I know that. They really chopped on her, chopped on her … kept, kept, kept."

Houston also insisted that her superstar daughter, who sold more than 200 million albums and singles and had 11 No. 1 songs in her career, did not die broke, contrary to published reports.

"She's not broke. She's not anything, none of that crap," she said in the interview.

In the end, the coroner determined Houston, 48, drowned in a bathtub inside the Beverly Hilton shortly after using cocaine Feb 11. Heart disease was also apparently a contributing factor in her death.

Whitney Houston's song for the movie "The Bodyguard" remains the bestselling soundtrack of all time, and won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1994. After her 2010 "Nothing but Love" tour grossed a reported $36 million, the star was attempting to mount a film comeback with the upcoming film "Sparkle."

Fans were able to get a sneak peak of Houston's final screen performance when the trailer for the film, which is set for an August release, debuted Monday. Houston plays a former singer whose singing daughters make it big.

"I always knew you had the gift … it makes me feel I've done something right. Don't lose it," Houston says in the film's trailer.

That sentiment is shared by her mother.

"I'm very proud of my daughter," she said. "She accomplished a whole lot in the short time that she had here. She was a very wonderful person."