Whitney Houston's daughter opens up to Oprah - msnbc.com

>>> on a different note for the first time we are hearing from whitney houston 's daughter bobbi kristina . she told oprah winfrey that her mom's spirit visits her all the time. she's never thought of the day that her mom would die but says she has accepted it.

>> does it seem real yet to you that she's actually gone? does it seem real?

>> sometimes no. sometimes it's -- it's so surreal that, you know, i still walk in the house and say, mom? i still call her name, but it's -- i've accepted it.

>> i want to bring in allison samuel, a senior writer for "newsweek" who interviewed whitney houston many times. allison , nice to get your take on your reaction to seeing how oprah handled that and how bobbi it is kristina handled the questions. what's your take on that?

>> i thought it was too son, but i thought she was as good as she could be saying she accepted it. it's not been long enough to appreciate the fact she's accepted it, but many people said she needed this to heal and to get her feelings out about her mother and to remind people whitney was a mother aside the negative things you heard, she has this wonderful relationship with her daughter, bobbi. they were best friends. i think that came through very clearly.

>> it did because bobbi kristina comes off as a strong defender of her mother, probably one of the strongest yet. we'll play another clip of the interview. take a look.

>> i saw her cry and i held her through that. we held each other through that. we have so many people saying so many other things, but they don't know who she really was.

>> so obviously the family is going to know the real deal of what's going on and there were public falldowns on whitney houston 's brilliant career, but is this a circling of the wagons for the family to protect the late singer's legacy? this definitely was.

>> people have forgotten how big she was and what a game-changer she was. they want people to come back to the real whitney that was a really sweet woman. that was the woman i always met. i understood why but felt it was a little soon. i would have loved to hear bobbi kristina in two or three months when she fully processed the death of her mother. i don't know what the absence -- i don't know if it's hit in terms of never seeing her mother again. i thought the brother and sister were pretty good and honest in a way that i was surprised by. when they made the point, we sort of knew drugs would play a factor into her life. so i thought that was interesting. but my concern was bobbi kristina , why now.

>> fact or fiction, she's looking to change her name to drop the bobbi part and the brown part?

>> that's the talk. she doesn't have a great relationship with her father, and him bringing so many people like it was a party didn't help that. there's truth to that.

>> more to come on that part. allison , great to see you, thanks.

>>> she's also author of "what would michelle do." great to have you. thanks again.