Mom says drug-addled singer Whitney Houston avoided her

NEWARK, N.J., Jan. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. gospel singer Cissy Houston says she never confronted her late daughter, Whitney, about her drug problems because she didn't want to scare her away.

Whitney Houston drowned in a hotel bathtub while under the influence of drugs and alcohol in Los Angeles last year. She was 48.

Cissy Houston writes in her new memoir "Remembering Whitney," she often asks herself, "Could I have saved her somehow?"

"She started partying and she didn't really know how to stop," People.com said Cissy Houston recalled in her book about her daughter's long-term addictions.

"I used to wonder what she was doing at night, where she was," she said. "Whitney hid from me."

Cissy Houston went on to say she was shocked to see how fragile Whitney Houston looked at a 2001 Michael Jackson tribute concert but didn't express her concern.

"What was the point?" People.com said she asks in the book. "I didn't want her to run completely away from me."