The singer’s death was also due to previously unreported heart disease that caused blockages in her arteries
Whitney Houston drowned in a hotel bath as a result of taking cocaine, it was revealed last night.
The singer’s death was also due to previously unreported heart disease that caused blockages in her arteries, according to a US coroner’s report .
Other drugs were found in her bloodstream – including marijuana, Xanax, the muscle relaxant Flexeril, and the allergy medication Benadryl.
But Los Angeles coroner’s spokesman Craig Harvey said cocaine was the only one which contributed to her death at the Beverly Hilton last month.
Chief of Operations Craig Harvey said toxicology tests showed Whitney, 48, was a chronic cocaine user.
The release of postmortem findings ends weeks of speculation about what killed the I Will Always Love You singer on the eve of the Grammy Awards.
She was found submerged face down in the bath of her apartment at the luxury Hollywood hotel and her death has been ruled accidental.
Several bottles of prescription pills were found in her room, but coroner’s officials said they weren’t in excessive quantities and no foul play is suspected.
Patricia Houston, the singer’s sister-in-law and manager, said: “We are saddened to learn of the toxicology results, although we are glad to now have closure.”
Whitney became one of the world’s biggest stars in the 80s with a string of hit singles and albums, but her decline into cocaine addiction overshadowed her earlier success.
Many friends blamed her stormy relationship with ex-husband Bobby Brown for her heavy drug use. Footage from a party on the eve of her death showed her looking worse for wear and behaving strangely.
She died just hours before she was due to appear at a pre-Grammy Awards bash.
Whitney was buried in a New Jersey cemetery next to her father John after a service attended by family, friends and stars such as Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey and Roberta Flack.
In her will she left everything to her only child, 19-year-old Bobbi Kristina.
Houston, a sensation from her first album in 1985 onwards, was one of the world's best-selling artists from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, turning out such hits as I Wanna Dance With Somebody, How Will I Know and The Greatest Love Of All.
But as she struggled with drugs, her majestic voice became raspy, and she could no longer hit the high notes.
Interest in her music has rocketed since her death, with her songs pushed back into the charts and frequently played by radio stations.
Whitney’s glittering career hit the stratosphere when she won a Grammy for the soundtrack to 1992’s The Bodyguard, which featured record-breaking single I Will Always Love You.
Her version of the Dolly Parton song became one of the best-selling singles in music history and spent 10 weeks at the top of the UK charts and 14 in the US.
Whitney made a comeback in 2009 after admitting her life had gone downhilll after she made The Bodyguard with Kevin Costner.
She said: "I don't like to think of myself as addicted. I had a bad habit, which can be broken. I'm not gonna tell you I'm somebody's junkie. My business is sex, drugs, rock and roll. Trust me. I partied my tail off."
Whitney sold more than 170million albums, singles and videos worldwide in her lifetime. She won six Grammys, two Emmys, 30 Billboard Music Awards and 22 American Music gongs.
She had a very rocky marriage to r'n'b Bobby Brown, which included a charge of domestic abuse against Brown in 1993. They divorced in 2007 after 14 years of marriage, during which time they had a daughter, Bobbi Kristina.
Whitney was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston, the cousin of 1960s pop diva Dionne Warwick and the goddaughter of Aretha Franklin.
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