Houston had her problems

Ex-husband Bobby Brown was emotionally abusive during their marriage and at one point spit on her, Whitney Houston says.

“I had so much money and so much access to what I wanted,” Houston told Oprah Winfrey on Monday. “I didn’t think about the singing part anymore. I was looking for my young womanhood.”

After a long absence from music, she’s staging a comeback with a new album, “I Look to You.”

Houston’s career stalled as she grappled with drug problems and a troubled marriage to Brown.

The couple married in 1992 and were divorced in 2007.

Houston said Brown wasn’t physically abusive, though “he slapped me once but he got hit on the head three times by me.”

She described an episode after a birthday party for Brown that left her “horrified. He spit on me, in my face.”

She said their daughter, Bobbi Kristina, witnessed the incident.

Don’t go breaking his heart

Elton John can’t adopt a 14-month-old HIV-positive child because he’s too old and isn’t married, the Ukrainian government says.

John, 62, announced his desire after meeting the boy while touring an orphanage Saturday as part of an anti-AIDS project.

Ukrainian law requires a parent to be no more than 45 years older than an adopted child, and doesn’t recognize his civil union with David Furnish.

Always thinking of his boys

By the way, Hugh Hefner says he waited 10 years to file for divorce from his estranged wife “because of the children.”

But with his twin boys turning 18, the 83-year-old Playboy founder says, “Now is the time.”

The birthday bunch

Actress Lauren Bacall is 85. Bluesman B.B. King is 84. Actor Peter Falk is 82. Illusionist David Copperfield is 53. Actor Mickey Rourke is 53. Actress Jennifer Tilly is 51. Comedian Molly Shannon is 45. Singer Marc Anthony is 41. Comedian Amy Poehler is 38. Actress Alexis Bledel is 28. Musician Nick Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) is 17.