Whitney Houston & Bobby Brown: Their Explosive, Drug-Fueled Turbulent Marriage Exposed

One of her goals was simple: just to stay a good human being. “I don’t know, just get married and have some kids, you know, do something different.”

Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, to all intents and purposes, should have been a match made in heaven. Both were young, attractive, successful recording artists seemingly with the world at their feet. Yet somehow it all went wrong.

This perfect love story turned sour, and the world watched. Petty jealousies, long-held resentments, and the mismatch between fantasy and reality all played their part. For Bobby, career envy reared its ugly head and played out in totally unacceptable behaviors.

For Whitney, substance abuse to deal with the pressure she was under as a wife, mother, and singing star led to the unthinkable. But arguably the real loser in this story was their child, Bobbi Kristina. This is the story of Bobby and Whitney.

Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born on August 9th, 1963. She grew up in Newark, New Jersey. Thanks to her father John R. Houston being head of central planning in the mayor’s office, the family enjoyed life in a large house in a middle-class neighborhood, with Whitney attending a private Catholic school.

From a musical point of view, Whitney had the upbringing we can only dream about. She was surrounded by some of the greatest talents of our time. Her mother Cissy was a great vocalist with the group The Sweet Inspirations, who had a hit called “Sweet Inspiration” and backed Elvis Presley.

As a backing singer, she backed Aretha Franklin most famously on a song called “Ain’t No Way.” If you just take time out to listen to that and hear those high notes, you will know where Whitney came from. That new record just floored people.

Born Robert Barisford Brown on February 5th, 1969, Bobby Brown grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the seventh of eight children. His father Herbert Brown was a construction worker and his mother Carol a school teacher.

Bobby’s start in life was more modest. Like Whitney, who sang at her local church many times a week, Bobby joined a church choir where his talent was recognized and he developed his singing abilities. Whitney’s mother put her all into making sure she would succeed, teaching her how to sing from the mind, the body, and most importantly the heart.

The first song Whitney ever performed was “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah,” and she performed that at the age of eleven when she was a pupil at a Catholic girls’ school. The last song she ever sang was “Jesus Loves Me.” So her life was framed either side by two songs, both of them devotional.

Bobby was left more to his own devices. At the age of twelve he formed a singing group with his friends Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ralph Tresvant, and Ronnie DeVoe, calling themselves New Edition. They rehearsed with a focus and discipline very rare for a group of pre-teen boys.

After winning several talent shows, New Edition was discovered by producer and talent scout Maurice Starr, who landed them a recording contract with a small label called Streetwise. The early days of her working life saw Whitney modeling to earn a living, and she was the first African-American to grace the cover of Seventeen magazine. However, Whitney had bigger plans, seeing herself not as a fashion clothes horse but as a singer.

Bobby was heading towards stardom too. In 1983, New Edition released their first studio album Candy Girl, a pop collection of songs that made the group an overnight sensation with teenage girls. The title track “Candy Girl” was highly reminiscent of the Jackson 5’s “ABC” and reached number one on the UK chart.

Whitney’s big break came in 1983 as well. Legendary producer and executive of Arista Records Clive Davis saw Whitney perform at a New York nightclub. Immediately recognizing her immense talent, he signed her on the spot.

Later that same year the young singer made her national television debut on the very popular Merv Griffin Show. New Edition were going from strength to strength with their self-titled second album despite the departure of their manager-producer Maurice Starr after the group accused him of stealing their earnings from their platinum debut.

Thanks to more targeted promotion and music tailored for a more mainstream audience, New Edition won new fans. Upon the release of this album, the first two singles “Cool It Now” and “Mr. Telephone Man” both became top 20 pop hits and reached number one on the R&B singles chart.

Although she had been signed by a major record label, Houston did not begin work on an album immediately. Arista Records executive Clive Davis knew he had someone very special on his books and wanted to ensure he had the right material and top producers for her debut album. Eventually he brought in talent such as Jermaine Jackson, Narada Michael Walden, Teddy Pendergrass, and Kashif.

Those who had muttered about her singing being linked to her mother’s connections in the industry were silenced by the quality of the record and its phenomenal success. Whitney Houston was a pop producer’s dream. Now we’re used to manufactured girls and boys coming out who look perfect but we kind of know they won’t be able to sing very well.

Whitney Houston had the face, the body, the charm, the wayward charisma, she filled the room. The first song that drew attention to Whitney was “Saving All My Love for You.” Her voice was more pop but it didn’t lose the soul.

She still had soul in it, but it was a pop voice. She had this kind of ethereal pure sound with her voice, and it was very refreshing. Things were not going so well for Bobby Brown in New Edition.

In fact, in 1986 he left New Edition to pursue a solo career. He remarked that the most he saw for all the tours and all the records sold was $500 and a VCR. He felt that being young and naive, the group had been treated like little slaves by people who were only interested in money and power and not the welfare of New Edition.

In December of that same year Brown released his first solo album King of Stage. While the album sold modestly and scored one major hit, the ballad “Girlfriend”, it failed to generate the level of excitement and acclaim which Brown had hoped for after the success of New Edition and the group’s adoring fans.

With the new medium of MTV, which arrived in 1981, becoming essential in terms of promoting singles, artists were keen to be featured on the playlist. Early on MTV was for the most part playing specifically white rock bands. Michael Jackson famously was unable to get on MTV for a very long time.

“How Will I Know,” which was Whitney’s third US single, went to number one and was really the first time that a young African-American woman was all over MTV. That video was massively successful. It was on constantly and it really cemented Whitney’s presence in mainstream America.

Bobby Brown also saw his waning stardom now on the ascendancy. Seeking to reinvent himself as an adult artist, Brown spent the next two years working closely with the acclaimed R&B songwriters and producers Teddy Riley, L.A. Reid, and Babyface. The result of their collaboration, released in the summer of 1988, was a radically new R&B album called Don’t Be Cruel that took the music world by storm.

It sold 7 million copies and became the bestselling album of the year. Brown’s high-powered, sexually charged music and live performances earned him comparisons to his childhood idol Michael Jackson. This album spawned five top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including the number one single “My Prerogative.”

At this point Whitney was a dazzling award winner too, with American Music Awards, Grammys, and an MTV Video Music Award in her trophy cabinet. Following her breakthrough, doors were opened for other African-American women such as Janet Jackson and Anita Baker to find deserved success for their music.

The challenge for Whitney now was to follow up her first album, and she did this with style in 1987 with her second, simply titled Whitney, which debuted at number one on the Billboard chart, the first album by a female artist to do so. With “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” this was a new Whitney Houston. This was a pop singer.

She was the first black female to be on MTV pretty much constantly. It really was a defining moment in the 1980s, full of optimism, neon colors, and a lot of positivity. Whitney Houston in that song did more than just do a great performance; she kind of summed up a decade.

The first four singles from the album all peaking at number one, a continuation of her previous three number one singles, made Whitney the only artist ever to have seven consecutive chart toppers, surpassing records previously set by the legendary Beatles and the Bee Gees. She was America’s sweetheart who sang like an angel.

Bobby Brown had it all too, at last the chart-topping records, the fame, and adulation. Yet success led to temptation, and just as Brown reached the height of his popularity in the late 1980s, his personal life began to spiral out of control. Towards the latter stages of his tour he invited criticism for his suggestive and crude acts, and tabloid newspapers and magazines were quick to report on Brown’s hard-partying lifestyle.

Perhaps it’s Whitney’s rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at the 1991 Super Bowl final that cemented her place in American hearts. Every single other person that’s come and sung it, I don’t remember except her. She completely nailed it.

This was and is now still one of the greatest moments in NFL history. At the time America was in the Gulf War. A lot of people had sons and daughters overseas. It was a time of great patriotism, and at the same time, any time you’re at war there’s a deep insecurity and fear.

She rocked up in a little power suit or jumpsuit. Never before had a national anthem been released and zoomed into the top five. It was a huge achievement, and Americans just kept loving her more. That was their song. This was their girl.

To this day many cry every time they hear it. It was the most beautiful rendition of the Star Spangled Banner that has ever been done before or since. It was a defining moment in Whitney’s career. She was America’s beloved daughter for doing such an extraordinary job on such a significant song at such an important time.

One friend knew Bobby and used to hang out with him in London just before he met Whitney. Bobby was sort of coming down from “My Prerogative” and New Edition, but he was still very popular. They took him around Brixton and he wanted to hang with the homies. They had fun.

Then when he came back to London again he had just met Whitney and he was going on and on about how amazing she is. He was really in love with her and he really fell for her hard. Whitney was America’s princess, America’s sweetheart. She hadn’t put a foot wrong and she was seen as very clean-living.

She’d been linked with Eddie Murphy and Randall Cunningham, a famous football player, and these were pretty good guys. But when she got together with Bobby Brown the headlines were kind of like, “What? What are these people doing together?” He was a bit of a ladies’ man, a real bad boy who already had kids and lots of exes.

On paper it doesn’t work, but Bobby Brown and Whitney got on so well because he treated her like a normal girl. She said many guys were just so scared of her and wanted to be overly nice. She was massively attracted to this guy who was gentlemanly but had nothing to prove.

She said all he knew she needed was love. There was chemistry, full stop. Of course it shouldn’t have worked, but how many girls know they shouldn’t have gone out with a bad guy but can’t help that feeling that gut feeling that you’re just for some reason attracted to him.

She was magnetized to him. He was a total laugher. He was funny. The friend brought him back to the house to meet his mom, and his mom cooked him Jamaican food. The bodyguards were there and they had a right laugh. He was lovely.

There was some amazing footage of her backstage playing around with Bobby Brown. They were really just like teenagers together, acting bits from different movies like What’s Love Got to Do with It or scenes from Natural Born Killers. You just see that this is a wonderful, fun-loving person who kind of got pushed into this position that she didn’t really want.

One of the avenues that Whitney Houston had begun to tentatively explore in the early 1990s was film acting. When she was approached to be the lead in a movie called The Bodyguard, it cemented Whitney’s role really as an iconic legend. She’d already been hailed as this extraordinary voice and beauty, but with The Bodyguard she was a movie star.

She was great in the movie. She’s not a natural actress but she did everything well enough. She was intelligent enough to read the lines in a believable way. She had great chemistry with Kevin Costner, who really fought for Whitney in the role.

The soundtrack itself was just Whitney Houston’s biggest hit of her entire career. “I Will Always Love You” is such an interesting song because it was written by Dolly Parton not as a love song as we know romantic or sexual love. It was a farewell to her singing and business partner Porter Wagoner.

Funnily enough it nearly wasn’t to be. They had another song in mind which had been released a few months earlier, so they decided to go with “I Will Always Love You.” It was number one for 20 consecutive weeks in America. Dolly Parton says, “Thank you Whitney for making this a far more beautiful song than I could ever have hoped.”

The film’s success led to Whitney becoming even more adored by the public. This, however, was not conducive to a happy marriage. Although Bobby was still making relatively successful records and winning awards, he could not come close to the kind of fame and adulation his wife was experiencing.

Alcohol and drugs were Bobby’s crutch, but the abuse of these substances led to multiple arrests involving violence and an incident never reported to police when Brown was kidnapped by a New York gang over a drug debt. Whitney Houston paid a reported $400,000 ransom. With his ego knocked by being called Mr. Houston, Bobby was obviously jealous but could not admit to this knowing emotion.

In Whitney’s very gut-wrenching interview with Oprah Winfrey she talks about the fact that there’s something that happens to a man when a woman has so much more fame than he does. She used to tell people, “Don’t call me Whitney Houston. I’m Mrs. Brown,” to try and make him feel more comfortable.

You could really view it as a modern-day cautionary tale. Even before the reality show there were all sorts of rumors of domestic violence and drug abuse. Whitney Houston started showing up late for performances. She would cancel interviews, cancel concerts, show up hours late.

It was just for our times possibly the most tumultuous marriage that stayed together in pop culture. The more it became impossible for her to be herself, the more she retreated into her own little private thing, which was drugs. They both had very troubled upbringings and issues around self-esteem.

Neither of them were really strong or powerful or congruent people. They created what is no doubt a kind of codependency. The song “I Have Nothing” is a typical example of the power of Whitney Houston’s voice. When she sang it was undeniable. The words are “I have nothing, I have nothing without you,” and I think it really was how Whitney felt about Bobby Brown at that time.

Despite their problems, the couple brought a new life into the world when their daughter Bobbi Kristina was born on March 13th, 1993. Having a baby, raising a child, hearing “Mommy” that’s what was foremost in her head right now. Whitney has achieved her dream of marriage and motherhood and was determined that her precious daughter would accompany her everywhere.

Being on tour or on a film set was no life for a child, and Bobbi Kristina spent most of the time with Whitney’s mother or the crew. It certainly could not be considered a normal childhood, and the little girl witnessed things she should never have seen, which perhaps impacted upon her mental health as she grew up more than anyone realized.

Brown’s bad behavior was escalating. It almost seemed that if his musical career was on the wane he was intent on being in the limelight for reasons other than music. He became involved in a number of incidents that included a club brawl, an assault and battery charge that led to probation, a drunk driving accident, and a stint at the Betty Ford Clinic.

Salvation beckoned when Brown was asked to record with the fully reunited New Edition, whose comeback album Home Again entered the charts at number one in September 1996. Brown toured with the group but, believing in his ability to be a solo star, he left the group on a high. Due to lack of promotion and Brown’s desire to break from previous partners and write and produce most of the tracks himself, the album Forever did not sell well at all.

Around this time Whitney was also promoting her first studio album in seven years. This came after a lot of train-wreck personal life stuff with drug issues, fights, and the marriage with her and Bobby. Originally it was going to be a greatest hits album with a couple of new songs, but once they got in the studio with great collaborators including Missy Elliott, it turned into an album all by itself.

The song “My Love Is Your Love” was amazing on so many fronts. An awful lot of critics had dismissed Whitney as a thing of the past, but this song had a slight reggae feel. It was a million miles from the pop you might associate her with. Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill from the Fugees were the sound of the moment. They were working with her on this song, so all of a sudden she didn’t just please her old fans but a young generation sat up and thought this is a cool sound.

Having been perceived by the record-buying public as a good girl with a perfect image in the 1980s and early 1990s, Whitney’s behavior had changed dramatically by the end of the decade. Rumors had started to circulate about Whitney’s sexual orientation back in the 1980s after moving in with her school friend Robin Crawford. Widely known in show business that Whitney and Robin were together.

Robin was actually working for Whitney for a time as an assistant. Bobby alluded to this himself when he looked back on the marriage, kind of implying that one of the reasons Whitney married him was to combat these lesbian rumors. Most of the rumors in Whitney Houston’s case have been confirmed by very close sources such as her bodyguard and family members.

If Whitney had been allowed to live as a lesbian woman she wouldn’t have had all these drug demons. This was probably the most positive relationship in her life. Robin was like the guardian angel. Unfortunately the power struggle between Robin and Bobby intensified, resulting in an ultimatum.

Knowing that Bobby was a seriously bad influence on Whitney and that their behavior and practices would destroy her, Robin gave her friend a choice: it’s going to be me or Bobby. When Whitney replied, “Tell her I accept her resignation,” they did not speak for years. Her ally was gone from her life when arguably she needed her most.

Without Robin’s stabilizing voice of reason and following a self-destructive path of drug codependency with her husband, Whitney had become increasingly unreliable. She canceled five shows during her 1999 tour, including a sold-out arena event in her hometown of Newark just 15 minutes before showtime. She arrived late for photo shoots and was reportedly fired from a planned Oscar ceremony appearance due to a poor rehearsal performance.

The speculation was that her drug use was causing her voice to suffer. What was astonishing and heartbreaking was to listen to her voice because it had gone. In part she sounded like she was really struggling to speak. It was sore, and of course we know now that it was because she smoked crack cocaine.

Of all the drugs she could have taken, of all the ways she could have taken them, she decided to do the thing that would take away her voice, her gift. Whitney’s father John had been stealing huge sums of money from her. After the breakdown of her association with Robin Crawford, Whitney’s father gained full control over managing her career and business affairs.

Shortly after finding out about her father’s disloyalty she gave an arrestingly honest TV interview with Diane Sawyer. The Diane Sawyer interview was absolutely astonishing. When Diane went for the jugular and asked her the tricky questions: “Did you take crack?” Whitney was very angry and trying to suppress that.

“It’s not just thin. No. What is it, Diane? Tell me. Do you know? It’s scary.” Then Whitney: “Crack is cheap. I make too much money to ever smoke crack. Let’s get that straight. Okay? We don’t do crack. We don’t do that.” She came across as very disjointed, jumpy.

Drug abuse in the marriage did not abate. In December 2003 Bobby Brown was charged with battery following an altercation during which he threatened to beat Houston and then assaulted her, with police reporting that Houston had visible injuries to her face. This did not stop Bravo network commissioning in early 2004 the reality TV program Being Bobby Brown.

It was one of the worst decisions she ever made. For the rest of film history we can watch these scenes of a deteriorating Whitney talking about bowel movements, talking about being drunk, clearly under the influence of all kinds of drugs. You could see him trying to drag his power back from Whitney.

A man like Bobby Brown doesn’t want to be Mr. Houston. He wants his wife to be Mrs. Brown. Because that could never happen, the implications for their marriage were severe and damaging.

Eventually the couple filed for divorce in September 2006. Houston gave her first interview in seven years in September 2009, appearing on Oprah Winfrey’s season premiere. The interview was billed as the most anticipated music interview of the decade.

Houston detailed the issues and breakdown of the marriage and told Winfrey that Brown had been abusive during their marriage and had spat on her on one occasion. “So when we got back to the house he’s going to hit me. I said please spit on me. He spit on me. He actually spit on me and my daughter was coming down the stairs and she saw it. And that was pretty intense.”

After the divorce was finalized, Houston was granted custody of Bobbi Kristina. Neglected as a child, she was very unhappy. Although Whitney tried very hard to always have her daughter by her side, ironically that was the worst thing for an impressionable and vulnerable young person.

Let’s spare a thought for Bobbi Kristina. This is a girl who’s grown up with parents both of whom are addicts. This is a child whose role models, parental role models are models of denial, models of addiction, and models of people who are living lives which are destructive and addictive.

Determined to be free of her addictions and become the mother figure for her daughter that she had always wanted to be, Whitney entered a 14-week drug rehabilitation program. Unable to complete this rehab due to a surprising lack of funds, Whitney decided that to save herself and her daughter her only course of action was to record new music and go on tour. With her inner circle advising against this, Whitney felt there was no other option.

At this point her public life, the idea of Whitney Houston as a drug casualty, as a reality TV casualty, really overshadowed her music career. Whitney’s infamous 2010 comeback tour, which was around Europe and the UK, drew a lot of fans who were ultimately very disappointed with what they heard. Almost universally the tour was ravaged by fans and critics alike.

Whitney was erratic. Her voice was totally not on form and all kinds of videos leaked on YouTube about her forgetting words, forgetting what she was supposed to say, and seemingly intoxicated. The world really saw it up close when she performed on the UK show The X Factor. Her dress was literally coming down on stage and she didn’t notice.

Although no one knew it, February 9th, 2012 was to be Houston’s very last public performance. For the most part Whitney stayed away from LA. She spent a lot of time in Atlanta where she lived in a big house, didn’t really do much, didn’t really work, just kind of hung around.

Coming out to LA for the Grammys was a big deal for her. The last song that Whitney publicly sang was “Jesus Loves Me.” It was an impromptu performance for her friend, the singer Kelly Price, who the next day was going to be receiving a Grammy award.

It was heartbreaking because that was going to be the final song. Then how poignant that she’s talking to Jesus, that religion means so much to her and she wasn’t to know that the next day she should be gone.

Tragically, two days later on February 11th, Houston was found unconscious in Suite 434 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, submerged in the bathtub. A report issued by the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office stated that the official cause of death was an accidental drowning, with heart disease and cocaine in her system contributing factors.

Whitney’s untimely death sent shock waves around the world. An invitation-only memorial service was held for Whitney Houston on Saturday, February 18th, 2012 at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. Bobby Brown’s behavior at the funeral was nothing short of odd and disrespectful in many ways.

Many would say that they wouldn’t have expected him even to be invited. It is no secret that Whitney’s family despises him and to a great degree blame a lot of Whitney’s problems with substance abuse on her marriage and her relationship to Bobby. However, Whitney’s family went on the record and said no, he is invited to the funeral.

Bobby was invited to bring two guests along with him. Now on the day of the funeral here comes Bobby Brown with an entourage of nine. Because they’d been asked to move, not Bobby but some of the people he brought, he became irate. He became very angry.

Al Sharpton, who was at the funeral, actually tweeted: “I’m trying to calm down Bobby Brown. Today is not about him. Today is about Whitney.” No matter how he was feeling, that day was not about him. That whole thing was just like a media circus.

Tragedy struck again in July 2015 when Bobbi Kristina was found unconscious in a filled bathtub in her home, chillingly mirroring her mother’s death. Bobbi was in a medically induced coma for six months before dying from pneumonia, aged just 22 years old.

There’ll never be another Whitney. There’s only one Whitney Houston. She was a real survivor. The number of movies and albums and tours that she did over such a short space of time, I just don’t know how she did it. She must have had no time to herself at all.

Whitney Houston’s death really did reverberate around the world. Sometimes you don’t realize what an iconic figure someone is until they’re gone. One of the really fascinating but infuriating things about Whitney is that she never knew who she was. She was always struggling to find herself.

There are two great lines from Whitney. One, she said “I am my own worst enemy.” In one of her most famous and moving songs, “I Have Nothing,” she said “I can’t hide from myself. I can’t run from myself.” The only time she ever felt comfortable, the only time she ever felt sure of who she was, was when she was on stage and she was singing. Those moments are the real her.

We’ll just remember the genius that took her to the top of the world, and in posterity will make sure she stays there.