LOS ANGELES: Grammy-winning singer Whitney Houston has entered a drug rehabilitation facility, her publicist said. “Houston thanks everyone for their support and prayers,” publicist Nancy Seltzer said in a statement. She declined to offer any further details.

Houston, 40, admitted in a December 2002 programme on ABC television that she had abused drugs in the past, but said she had got beyond that time through prayer. Houston’s husband, R&B singer Bobby Brown, was sentenced to 60 days in jail in late February for violating probation. One of the violations included a December misdemeanor battery charge for allegedly striking Houston, leaving her with a bruised cheek and a cut inside her lip.

In January 2000, Houston left behind a bag at Keahole Kona International Airport in Hawaii that allegedly held less than half an ounce of marijuana and three partially smoked marijuana cigarettes.

In 2001, a misdemeanor drug charge relating to the incident was dismissed against Houston after a drug counsellor filed an assessment with prosecutors stating that Houston did not require treatment for substance abuse. Brown and Houston have been married since 1992 and have a 10-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina. — AP