Two days before she was found face-down in the bathtub at her home outside of Atlanta in January, it seemed like Bobbi Kristina Brown’s career might have been picking up.
“Let’s start this career up&&moving OUT to TO YOU ALLLL quick shall we !?!???!” she said in an enthusiastic tweet.
It’s not clear what projects she may have been working on, and sadly, the world may never know.
Brown, the daughter of late superstar Whitney Houston and singer Bobby Brown, died July 26 at the age of 22, a representative of the Houston family said in a statement.
“Bobbi Kristina Brown passed away Sunday, July 26, surrounded by her family,” the statement said. “She is finally at peace in the arms of God. We want to again thank everyone for their tremendous amount of love and support during these last few months.”
Brown, Houston’s only child, was treated in a hospital and then a hospice facility in the nearly six months since she was found unresponsive and not breathing in the bathtub at her Roswell, Ga. home on January 31—nearly three years to the day after her mother accidentally drowned in a bathtub in Beverly Hills, a victim of the vices she had fought for much of her career.
As rumors flew, family took sides
Brown was placed in a medically induced coma, relatives have said. Rumors flew about her condition, with family members and loved ones taking sides in the drama.
In April, her maternal grandmother, Cissy Houston, said Bobbi Kristina had “global and irreversible brain damage.”
“Meeting with the doctors and understanding that she can live in this condition for a lifetime truly saddens me,” Houston said. “We can only trust in God for a miracle at this time.”
The statement was released days after Bobby Brown told an audience in Dallas, “I can say today, Bobbi is awake. She’s watching me.”
On June 24, Bobbi Kristina’s aunt, Pat Houston, announced that her niece had been moved to a hospice facility.
“Despite the great medical care at numerous facilities, Bobbi Kristina Brown’s condition has continued to deteriorate,” Houston’s statement said. “As of today, she has been moved into hospice care. We thank everyone for their support and prayers. She is in God’s hands now.”
Many had worried that the young woman was haunted by some of the same demons as her mother.
Love, grief and family tensions
Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown married in 1992 and welcomed Bobbi Kristina in 1993. The little girl was doted upon by both her parents, and Houston often brought the youngster on stage.
Houston told Rolling Stone magazine in 1993 that “having Bobbi Kristina … I could never do anything that could top that. There’s been nothing more incredible in my life than having her.”
Brown and Nick Gordon, taken in by Houston at age 12 and reared with Bobbi Kristina, announced their engagement in 2013, and she took to her Facebook page to clear up the misconception that he was her adopted brother.
“People need to seriously stop judging my relationship,” Brown wrote. “Pretty sure it’s my own decision who I want to be with.”
Criminal investigation
It was Gordon and a male friend who discovered Brown unconscious in her townhome. While Brown called Gordon her husband (she had tweeted a picture believed to be of their hands wearing wedding rings with the hashtag #HappilyMarried) there is no court record of a marriage between the two, and family members say the couple was never legally wed.
Police had been called to Brown’s home January 23 after someone reported a fight there, but no one answered the door, and officers found no evidence of an altercation, a Roswell police spokeswoman said.
After Brown was found in the bathtub, authorities launched a criminal investigation. A family friend said police questioned Gordon about the bruising on Brown’s chest and said he told them it was a result of his giving her CPR.
Gordon gave an emotional and sometimes explosive interview that aired in March on the “The Dr. Phil Show” in which he complained of being denied access to Brown.
CNN’s Alina Machado and Carolyn Sung contributed to this report.
