Whitney Houston Reveals Dark Days With Bobby Brown: 'He Spit on Me'

Sept. 14, 2009 — -- After years of silence, Whitney Houston finally revealed the drama, drugs and disrespect that defined her relationship with ex-husband Bobby Brown in an interview with Oprah Winfrey.

"He spit on me," Houston told Winfrey. "He spit on me. He actually spit on me. And my daughter was coming down the stairs and she saw that."

The first of her highly publicized, two-part tell-all airs today on the 24th season premiere of "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Houston hasn't done a major TV interview since 2002, when she talked to ABC's Diane Sawyer.

"I took the phone and I hit him over the head with it," Houston said.

The anecdote was one of many disturbing tales the 46-year-old singing icon revealed about her past. While Houston contended that Brown was not physically abusive, she said, "He slapped me once and he got hit over the head."

"He slapped me, but he was on probation for traffic violations," she said. "You can't slap somebody if you're on probation. It went to domestic violence court."

Houston said she stood by Brown through the court hearings in 2004 because she "was his wife." Brown publicly maintains he never hit Houston; his representative declined ABCNews.com's request for further comment.

Emotional abuse, according to Houston, ran rampant. While Brown and Houston launched into a "passionate, loving ... crazy relationship" soon after meeting in 1989 and marrying in 1992, as her career exploded with the film and soundtrack for "The Bodyguard," he started acting out, she said. They eventually separated in 2006 and divorced the following year.

"I think somewhere inside, something happens to a man, when a woman has that much control," she told Winfrey.

Brown's alcoholism spiraled out of control, she added.