Dionne Warwick felt like she "lost a part" of herself when Whitney Houston died.
Dionne Warwick
The 74-year-old singer was the cousin of the troubled music legend - who accidentally drowned in the bathtub at a hotel in Beverly Hills in 2012, aged just 48 - and although she has felt great pain over her passing, Dionne believes Whitney's death - which toxicology results showed was caused by heart disease linked to her drug use - to the will of God.
She said: "I felt like I lost a part of me when Whitney left me.
"But there was nothing that anyone could have done. That was Whitney's choice, unfortunately, and that was also the plan. That was God's plan.
"She was relieved of all the anxiety and traumas being plagued upon her."
The 'I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself' hitmaker is currently facing the loss of Whitney's 22-year-old daughter Bobbi Kristina, who remains unconscious four months after she was discovered face down in a bath at her home in Georgia.
Dionne admits any death is a "very difficult thing" to cope with, but she is philosophical about the situation.
In an interview with the Daily Mirror newspaper, she said: "God has a plan for everybody, for better or different. Of course, any death within my family is a very difficult thing, no matter who it is.
"You're losing a part of you. Everybody that's gone before me has taken a part of me with them."
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