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Talk show host Wendy Williams gave a heartfelt tribute to the late Whitney Houston on her show this morning, and broke down while she described what the late singer meant to her as a former addict.

“I felt very close to Whitney even though this is a woman I’ve never met. I’ve never even been in the same room with her except for one time in my life,” she started. “Some of the things Whitney and I have in common that bonded us: the love of our mother and our father… and both plagued with the demon of substance abuse.”

Wendy choking up, went on to quietly explain her own past struggles with addiction and said she had hoped to one day meeting the singer, whom she interviewed on the radio in 2003. In case you missed it, Wendy and Whitney had been long-time rivals ever since that infamous radio interview in 2003, when she had interrogated the R&B singer over her alleged drug abuse.

Whitney told Wendy:

“If this were back in the day in Newark, I’d meet you outside.”

Wendy went on to say:

“It’s been almost 15 years since I last smoked last from a crack pipe. It’s been almost 15 years since I waited on Jerome Avenue in the Bronx for my drugs,” she said. “I knew I’d meet her one day, but I always pictured that time to be in our late 50s, 60s with her being the No. 1 spokesperson for ‘Say No.’ I just for some reason thought that’s what she’d do. It’s what I want to do. I just thought we’d meet, and we’d hug and we’d be sober and older.”

Asking for her viewers to use the singer’s death as a reason to reach out to those with addiction problems, Williams finished: “I’m one of the lucky ones.”

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