14 DAY TRIAL // For the past few years of her life, Whitney Houston dated Ray J, who now maintains they were soul-mates and very good friends. At the 2012 Billboard Awards, though, he got no love from her family and especially from Patricia Houston, it has emerged.
As we also noted the other day, Whitney was honored with the Millennium Award at the gala, which also included a very special tribute from John Legend and Jordin Sparks.
Right before the tribute began, TMZ reports, Patricia Houston, Whitney's manager and sister-in-law, got so inflamed that Ray J was seated next to the family, that she did her best to have him booted.
The family believes Ray J may be the source of some of the problems Whitney had in her final years, including drug addiction, and this is why Pat reportedly got so angry.
“Pat Houston's blood was boiling because she, Bobbi Kristina and other family members were seated next to Ray J, the person Pat believes was a very bad influence on Whitney. Minutes before the tribute to Whitney, Pat asked her security to remove Ray J from his seat, but he refused to budge,” the celebrity e-zine notes.
“Our sources say Pat's security summoned hotel security, along with several uniformed officers to physically remove Ray J,” adds the same media outlet.
However, because all this was going on just moments before the Whitney Houston tribute was about to start, Pat finally gave up trying to have Ray J booted when organizers told her that things “would most likely get physical” and it would be caught on tape.
He got to keep his seat for the remainder of the night.
Contacted for statement on the altercation, Pat let her publicist do all the talking: she had nothing against Ray J, it was her assistant who asked him to move for reasons independent of her.
“A rep for the Houston family tells TMZ Pat's assistant DID ask for Ray J to be moved from his seat, but only after an official from Billboard told the family they needed to move to the seat that Ray J was already using,” TMZ writes.
“Since Ray J had a ticket with the proper seat number, he refused to budge, so Pat's assistant called for security to help sort out the situation,” the report further argues.
Though the Whitney Houston tribute and Bobbi Kristina's speech (see below) were two of the most touching moments of the night, the gala certainly didn't go down without drama.
Before the awards show, Pat reportedly got into a fight with the organizers because she didn't want to have Bobbi Kristina on stage accepting the award on her mother's behalf: she wanted to be the only one up there.
