When Whitney Houston’s descent into drug addiction was clearly causing her career to falter, many pointed the finger of blame at her then-husband Bobby Brown. That finger-pointing continued for many years and was never more vociferous than when Whitney died last year, on the eve of the Grammy Awards, alone in a hotel bathtub, with traces of cocaine in her blood stream.

Recently though, her mother, Cissy Houston publicly stated that she did not blame Bobby for Whitney’s drug problem. Now, Whitney’s brother Michael Houston has confessed that it was in fact him that introduced his sister to cocaine. Talking to Oprah Winfrey, with Cissy by his side, Michael confessed his guilt. “I feel responsible for her. I always have. I just felt like I should have taken better care of her,” said Michael. After some probing from Oprah, Michael admitted to introducing Whitney to cocaine, before she even met Bobby Brown. He insisted that it was an acceptable part of the music industry in the 1980s. “It was available,” he explained. “It wasn’t a bad word like it is now.”

When asked if he carried the burden of Whitney’s death, he replied “Every day. Every day. It's something I got live with the rest of my life.” He told Oprah, “I’m living, but I’m not alive.”