Brandy says Boyz II Men romance started at 16, reveals final call with Whitney Houston
Brandy says Boyz II Men romance started at 16, reveals final call with Whitney Houston
Taijuan Moorman, USA TODAYTue, March 31, 2026 at 11:02 AM UTC
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There are few people in the world who know the mystifying experience of being a child star as well as Brandy.
In "Phases" (out now, Hanover Square Press), the Grammy-winning celebrity opens up about fame, self-image, heartbreak, loss and the callous nature of the music industry, from a woman who has often kept her cards close to the chest.
With the help of journalist Gerrick Kennedy, the memoir details Brandy's meteoric rise to fame as a young teen while volleying ambition, exhaustion and self-doubt, moving through a predatory and tormenting industry and being misunderstood in the public eye. Her whirlwind rise to stardom marked a turning point for a generation of Black girls, seeing a face like theirs on screen. From the success of TV show "Moesha" and hit albums, to stagnation flanked by controversy and, eventually, the gift of motherhood, the Vocal Bible digs deep.
The book, which comes months after the sold-out The Boy is Mine coheadlining tour with Monica and just after the unveiling of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, also sees the R&B star reveal new details about their chart-topping duet, her last conversation with Whitney Houston and her relationship with Boyz II Men's Wanya Morris.
Brandy cements her Hollywood legacy with star on Walk of Fame
Brandy reveals relationship with Boyz II Men's Wanya Morris started when she was 16
While Boyz II Men singer Wanya Morris has long suggested that a rumored romance between himself and Brandy did not start until she was 18, she writes that the relationship started when she was 16 and he was 22.
Their connection started when Brandy was 15, she says, and Morris began to call and check in on her regularly, offering advice as an "anchor" and "confidant" to the up-and-coming star. After she joined the group on tour, however, the pair got closer.
"'My girlfriend is sixteen.' I don't remember when he first said it. But those four words started rolling off Wanya's tongue whenever we were alone," Brandy writes. "I couldn't tell if this refrain was meant to soothe his own conscience or temper the questions shimmering in my gaze."
Morris has previously discussed the relationship, saying in a 2021 Instagram Live that the pair did not date until she was "of age" and that "her mother and father was a part of our relationship." He added, "You can ask Brandy and she will tell you the same story."
Wanya Morris of "Boyz II Men" performs during radio station KLUC's "Summer Jam 2001" concert at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, May 19, 2001.
But Brandy writes that the pair were "sneaking around," and that she hid the relationship from her parents, though they eventually grew suspicious. She said she "knew full well that what was happening between Wanya and me was wrong. And yet, my attitude was 'This is special. This is real. People just can't understand.'"
She writes that she lost her virginity to Morris, adding that she "genuinely believed it was true love."
Eventually, Brandy says Morris increasingly became critical of her and controlled her access to him. She would later catch him with his assistant. After confronting the singer, he confessed to sleeping around with different women, and the pair split.
"For years, I struggled with how I was treated in this relationship," she writes. "He saw a fifteen-year-old girl with rising fame and admiration for his talent, and I believe he deliberately took advantage. This was a twenty-two-year-old man who I believe knew exactly what he was doing when he pursued an underage girl."
Singer Brandy is shown after she received the best rhythm & blues/soul-new artist award for "I Wanna Be Down" at the Soul Train Music Awards March 13, 1995, in Los Angeles.
Brandy writes of Morris' "narrative" surrounding the relationship in the years since, expressing infuriation that the onus of the inappropriate relationship has been placed on her and being characterized as "dramatic."
Brandy said she was "vulnerable to the attention of someone I idolize," calling the relationship a "calculated courtship."
"The shame I have carried over this relationship ends here ... I have grown more resentful at Wanya's insistence on reframing that time, his continued attempts to rewrite history with himself as the misunderstood romantic lead rather than the adult man he was," she writes. "His refusal to acknowledge what I believe he did, to take responsibility for the power I believe he wielded and abused, feels like its own form of continued abuse."
She later reveals her sophomore album, "Never Say Never," was about the relationship and not recognizing "my own worth."
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Brandy's family, label thought 'The Boy is Mine' duet with Monica was a mistake
Brandy has long said the idea for "The Boy is Mine" came out of a desire to get the last laugh amid a media storm that took pleasure in pitting the young R&B stars against each other. But at the time, Brandy's idea to work with Monica on the new record was not supported by most of the people around her.
"'You're fanning the flames,' my mother warned. 'People will blow this out of proportion,' my brother said. 'It's a mistake,' one Atlantic executive said flatly during a meeting, not even bothering to hear me out," writes Brandy, who reached out to Monica anyway.
And while the success of the song became meteoric, they weren't exactly wrong: The song put the pair under even more scrutiny, as the media nitpicked every interaction as evidence of a rift that eventually did become one due to industry politics.
Brandy and Monica after winning a Grammy for "The Boy is Mine," Los Angeles, Feb. 24, 1999.
Brandy explains one situation that turned heads, her choosing to perform the song solo on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." She says Monica had a scheduling conflict, but she couldn't pass up the promotional opportunity.
"I convinced myself I couldn't afford to pass on national television exposure, so I performed our duet alone, singing both parts," she writes. "My intention wasn't to slight Monica, but the optics were problematic at best."
The pair got over the rift in time to accept a Grammy for the record. They reconnected in 2010, attending Clive Davis' pre-Grammy gala together to see their mentor Whitney Houston's performance.
Brandy shares details of final call with Whitney Houston
Brandy details a lifelong fandom for Houston, detailing the time she once schemed her way backstage at one of her concerts – though she didn't get to meet her that night – and revealing that she managed to get the singer on the phone pre-fame, when she was 12 years old.
At a taping of "The Tonight Show" in Burbank, California where BeBe & CeCe Winans were set to perform the young singer hatched a plan to sing their track with Houston, "Hold Up the Light," to get backstage.
Apparently, nobody stopped her as she made her way out of the live TV audience.
"Their attention carried me from the rafters all the way down to the soundstage floor, past security guards who couldn't quite bring themselves to stop this little brown girl with the big voice, all the way backstage to where BeBe and CeCe stood in conversation," she writes.
The sister and brother duo were also amused, and when a young Brandy begged them to call Houston, they obliged.
Actresses Brandy, left, and Whitney Houston pose together at the premiere of their new made-for-television movie, Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella," Oct. 14 at Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Oct. 13, 1997.
"Disbelief rattled through my limbs as CeCe, calm as still water, extended the receiver toward me with a playful smile," Brandy writes. "A soft pause, a gentle rustle on the other end, and then ... a laugh. A low, sweet laugh that sent electricity racing through my veins. 'Speak up, baby, I can hardly hear you,' the voice coaxed, breathy and warm, unmistakably hers — Whitney Houston."
By 2012, the "Cinderella" costars had become extremely close. Brandy recalled preparing to perform at Clive Davis' pre-Grammy gala with Monica, when a disheveled Houston made her entrance.
"Whitney came bouncing — no, exploding — onto that stage like a chaotic meteor, trailing laughter, water, and the unmistakable scent of trouble. Her clothes clung to her damply, evidence of an impulsive swim, and she moved with the unpredictable rhythm of someone no longer tethered to the room," Brandy writes, alarmed that onlooking press seemed to revel in the unexpected story. "Whitney appeared to be under the influence, and it was tough to be in a room crawling with strangers whispering and judging her."
The pair would speak on the phone later that night, hours before her death at 48 from drowning in a bathtub and the "effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use."
"For three precious hours, we talked. We reminisced. We laughed together. Cried together. Prayed together," Brandy writes. "There were flashes of the old Whitney in that conversation — glimpses of light breaking through. 'I'm gonna be better,' she promised as our call wound down, and in that moment, I believed her with every fiber of my being. 'You'll see. This is just a season, not the whole story.'"
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brandy says romance with Wanya Morris of Boyz II Men started at 16
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
