Raffles van Exel is trying to clear his name from reports that suggested he was the one who supplied the 'I Will Always Love You' hitmaker with cocaine before her untimely death.
- May 17, 2012
AceShowbiz - Whitney Houston's family might have moved on with their life three months after the R&B diva's untimely death, but one of her friends is still trying to clear his name. According to TMZ, Raffles van Exel has fired off cease and desist letters to media outlets that connected him negatively to the passing of the "Step by Step" singer.
In the wake of Houston's death, words spread that van Exel might have been the one who supplied the singer with cocaine before her death. After he reportedly admitted to the Dutch Telegraph newspaper to clearing the singer's hotel room before police arrived, he was linked to report that someone scrubbed away any traces of coke from the scene.
van Exel, who describes himself as a "private consultant to the stars", was also accused of selling the photo of Houston's body lying in her golden coffin to a tabloid. In a recent interview with TMZ, he denied all the reports and insisted that he is "neither the architect nor the culprit of the sudden demise of Whitney Houston."
Houston passed away on February 11. She was found underwater and unconscious in bathtub of her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. On March 22, it was announced that she died of accidental drowning with atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use being the contributing factors.
Houston's final autopsy report was released on April 4, revealing the late singer complained of a sore throat before taking a bath to get ready for Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party. According to the report, the singer was found face down in the bathtub in 13 inches of "extremely hot" water when her assistant returned to the hotel room after running an errand.
