- Bobbi Kristina Brown is Whitney Houston’s only child
- Her father is Whitney’s ex-husband Bobby Brown
- Bobbi adored her mother and called her a ‘best friend’
- She claimed to have gotten married to Nick Gordon in 2014
- Bobbi tragically died in 2015, similar to the way her mother passed
Pop icon Whitney Houston is remembered as one of the most influential musicians in history. She is the only artist ever to chart seven No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 consecutively and was the first female artist in history to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. Plus, she’s a six-time Grammy winner and 25-time nominee. Furthermore, the Guinness World Records named the powerhouse vocalist as the “most awarded female artist of all time,” according to her website.
Perhaps her favorite achievement of them all, however, is becoming a mother. Whitney gave birth to her first and only child, Bobbi Kristina Brown, with her then-husband Bobby Brown on March 4, 1993. “She brings me a lot of joy,” Whitney gushed to Entertainment Tonight shortly after welcoming her daughter. “It’s a different thing when you become a mother. It changes your whole perspective on life. You really don’t live for you anymore. You’re living for your children.”
Unfortunately, Bobbi died just three years after her mother in 2015. She was 22 years old. Read on to learn about Bobbi and her tragic death.
Bobbi Kristina Brown’s Childhood
Bobbi Kristina Brown grew up in the spotlight and frequently accompanied her parents to red carpet events, such as the 1994 American Music Awards when she was just 11 months old. She was seemingly born to be a star, as she appeared on several of Whitney’s songs as a child, including the 1998 single “My Love Is Your Love”. As the song begins, little Bobbi says, “Sing, Mommy”, and yells “Clap your hands!” as the song concludes. She was also featured on Whitney’s 2003 Christmas album, One Wish: The Holiday Album.
Bobbi didn’t just grow up in front of photographers and microphones; she was recorded from a young age. She appeared in Bobby Brown’s reality series Being Bobby Brown and starred in The Houstons: On Our Own, which debuted in 2012 after Whitney’s tragic death. “I’m most excited for people to see our family together as a unit just working together being an actual family,” Bobbi told Entertainment Tonight ahead of the show’s premiere. “It’s not anything that’s fake — nothing like that. It’s us being a family and us getting through it together, and that’s how it is.”
Bobbi And Whitney Were Super Close
After Whitney’s sudden death, Bobbi said her mother was her “best friend” in an interview with Oprah Winfrey and recalled nights that Whitney would crawl in bed with her and hold her all night. “That very last day, it was so, so early in the morning … I went to go get her and I said, ‘You know Mom, will you just come lay with me?'” she recalled. “She stayed with me all night and all day … she was rubbing my head, just holding me.”
Bobbi’s Last Year Of Life
The last year of Bobbi’s life was plastered in the tabloids. In July 2014, she had to defend herself against a photo that circulated that showed her allegedly smoking weed out of a bong. She denied she was in the picture with a Twitter statement. “I’ve never posted any photo of me doing anything ! This is someone trying to tarnish and make a horrible name for MYSELf,” she wrote. “People are insane.”
Being in love is thee BEST feeling in the world when it's with Y O U . . . 😊❤️💋❤️😍 iLoveYouBaby 😍💋 @nickdgordon ! pic.twitter.com/CNkK7EBQYQ
— Bobbi Kristina H.G. (@REALbkBrown) October 15, 2014
Bobbi’s marriage was also a hot topic, as she was just 20 years old when she announced that she and family friend Nick Gordon tied the knot. She took to Twitter to announce the news alongside a photo of what appeared to be their hands intertwined while wearing wedding bands. “#HappilyMarried So #Inlove if you didn’t get it the first time that is,” she tweeted on Jan. 9, 2014. After Bobbi’s death, it was revealed that she and Nick were not legally married.
The union confused some fans because Nick was taken in by Whitney when he was 12 and raised by her. However, Nick said his marriage to Bobbi is what Whitney “wanted” in a video obtained by TMZ. “This is exactly what she wanted … us together,” a smiling Bobbi confirmed.
Sadly, after Bobbi’s passing, more light was shed on their marriage in a $40 million lawsuit filed against Nick by Bobbi’s conservators. Legal documents obtained by PEOPLE in July 2015 claimed Nick “often answered Brown’s personal cell phone, would not allow her to make appointments without his approval, and manipulated her bank relationship so that he could access her money.”
One of Bobbi’s closest friends, Alex Reid, later came forward and corroborated the story that Nick was abusive. “Krissi was physically abused by Nick on a number of occasions and she told me about some of them,” Alex claimed to E! News. “I never witnessed anything … she would FaceTime me every time she was distraught, when something has just happened or show me a bruise.” Nick died in 2020 of a heroin overdose.
How Bobbi Kristina Died
Bobbi was found “face-down in the bathtub” of her Roswell, Ga. home by Nick in Jan. 2015, per PEOPLE. Sadly, the incident occurred just days before the third anniversary of her mom’s death, who was pronounced dead after being found unconscious in a bathtub. Bobbi was then rushed to the hospital and put into a medically induced coma.
In April of that year, her grandmother, Cissy Houston, shared an update on her state. “I have just returned from visiting my granddaughter Bobbi Bobbi in the hospital and while she is no longer in a medically induced coma she has a tracheotomy and according to the doctors she has global and irreversible brain damage and remains unresponsive,” she told Us Weekly. “Meeting with the doctors and understanding that she can live in this condition for a lifetime truly saddens me. We can only trust in God for a miracle at this time. Keep us in your prayers.”
Sadly, Bobbi Kristina died in hospice care on July 26, 2015. According to the medical examiner’s report, she died of pneumonia that was brought on by a mix of drugs, including marijuana, “a cocaine-related substance” called benzoylecgonine, morphine that resulted from the use of heroin, and alcohol, per CBS News. Bobbi is buried next to her mother at the Fairview Cemetery in New Jersey.