Born to Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, Bobbi Kristina, was raised by parents who had no control over their behavior.
Trigger warning: Abusive partner and substance abuse
Celebrities we idolize aren't always able to live up to the pressure attached to their job. Many crumble publicly and leave a legacy of both tragedy and genius. They are only human even when the demands of the job are not. Many are incapacitated to the point of not being able to function in daily lives, which include their roles as parents.
Whitney Houston had a lovely voice and was a great performer but her addictions were running and ruining her life. She never found the support to overcome those and succumbed to them in the end.
She was found dead in a bathtub at The Beverly Hilton on the eve of the Grammys in February 2012. Her toxicology report showed that she had residues of marijuana, Xanax, Benadryl, and other medications in her system, according to Newsweek.
At the time of her death, her daughter, Bobbi Kristina, was around 19 years old. They had a close bond but not without its problems. Born to Houston and Bobby Brown, Kristina, was raised by parents who had no control over their behavior.
Houston "planned her day around the drugs, and nothing else mattered," one of her closest friends revealed on condition of anonymity. "Drug sellers loved her, and everyone wanted to sell to her because she paid in cash. She would spend thousands of dollars a week buying drugs and stockpile it in the house so she wouldn't run out. The house would be a mess, with trash and dirty clothes everywhere, but she didn't want anyone to clean up, because she didn't want people to see how bad everything was. She didn't want a nanny for Bobbi Kristina for the same reason," they revealed.
Despite this, her daughter was her number 1 supporter. "[Bobbi Kristina] was her friend, confidante, and her protector," a family member told the Daily Beast in 2012. "Bobbi Kristina ... loved her so much and never gave up on her."
Unfortunately, The Bodyguard actress had doubts about herself when it came to parenthood. When Kristina was born, she left her daughter with a family friend for three months because she believed she won't be a good mom, as per Amomama. However, something shifted within her and she brought her child home.
Kristina was born after several miscarriages and Houston loved her to bits but couldn't be there for her child. "She loved that little girl with all her heart, but she was far too sick by the time her baby came to be the kind of mother she needed to be," a family friend told Newsweek. "Sometimes Whitney would be so out of it, the baby wouldn't be changed for days at a time."
Houston and her husband, R&B singer Brown, were on a destructive path even though they tried to get clean many times. However, Brown was abusive towards Houston and their daughter was a witness to it all. "Bobby liked to drink, and when he was drunk, he was really mean and nasty. He'd spit at her and throw things at her, all in front of Bobbi Kristina," said a friend of the I Wanna Dance with Somebody singer.
One incident shows how Brown, too, was unable to be a good parent. Houston once accompanied Brown on a tour and took their daughter. Brown had just gotten out of rehab but Houston couldn't control herself and started using in front of him. Her then-husband threw her and his daughter off the bus in the middle of the road. Eventually, another band member picked them up.
Eventually, when the couple divorced, the mother and daughter became like sisters. By then, even Kristina had started using, and eventually, she, too, succumbed to it. When Houston was alive, they were friends for the world to see, but behind closed doors, they fought, sometimes physically.
"Bobbi Kristina loved her mother," says another close family friend. "But she had anger at her as well. She saw a lot of bad things as she grew up, from both her mom and her dad. They both put that child through a lot."
Neither Bobbi nor Houston's mother was able to save the pop star in the end because she didn't want to be saved. "You couldn't make Whitney do anything she didn't want to, plain and simple," her former assistant says. "People did try to get her help, and her mother certainly wanted to help her daughter. But in many ways they didn't know what to do. Whitney was the breadwinner and called the shots."
When she died, her daughter was alone and turned to Nick Gordon, whom Houston had unofficial adopted. Unfortunately, when Bobbi died three years later, Gordon was blamed for it.
References:
https://www.newsweek.com/whitney-houstons-private-hell-and-inevitable-death-64115
https://news.amomama.com/198211-bobbi-kristinas-close-relationship-her-l.html#
