Bobby Brown got candid about addiction during his marriage to Whitney Houston.
In the second half of A&E Biography: Bobby Brown, which aired Tuesday night, saw the singer talk about being addicted to cocaine, heroin, cocaine and alcohol before finally sobering up. He also shared a “big misconception” about his marriage to Houston.
Brown, 53, has been described by the media as a “bad boy” in her relationship with Houston and accused her of a drug spiral. When they got together, however, the “Greatest Love” singer with an angelic voice was a more experienced drug addict, which he discovered at his 1992 wedding.
He candidly recalls that on their wedding day, the new alum was “frightened to death”, locking himself in the bathroom and “drinking, smoking and sniffing” cocaine. It was his now-wife and then-friend Alicia Etheredge who really helped him get over his nervousness – persuading him to get out of the bathroom.
When he actually came out and was getting married, he saw his bride-to-be for the first time while she was “making a line of coke”. While he called it “shocking” to see her “smell for the first time” because of his nervousness on his wedding day – and worrying about whether he was doing the right thing – it made him feel like he had “a relationship with Houston” There’s more in common” than he thought.
However, “I am new [using cocaine] I guess she’s been doing this for a while,” he said.
When he and Houston didn’t get excited, Brown said, everything was great. “She’s just the kindest, loveliest person I know. They weren’t ‘in the throes of illness’ at first. They focused on raising their new baby, Bobbi Kristina, who was born in 1993 and ‘was willing to party'” In the weekend. Cocaine soon “became a problem in our marriage…and after a while, we lost our minds.”
Brown admitted that in addition to cocaine, he also used heroin and crack, the latter of which would be mixed with marijuana.
“It’s really hard to be an addict,” said Brown, who has been off drugs for 20 years and alcohol for two. “You don’t know you’re an addict until it gets worse and worse.”
One of the worst moments was touring with the new version of the reunion in 1997, and Houston joined them. Brown recalled being so tall that he thought Houston was trying to kill him. He said he kicked everyone off the tour bus and stopped with a .357 magnum in his hand and cocaine, crack and weed in separate pockets.
“They want to kill me!” he recalls yelling when the homeowner pointed a shotgun at him. After that, Brown left the tour due to plot and breathing issues, describing it as “the lowest of the lows”.
But this is not his “bottom”. He was jailed for 65 days in Florida in 2000 after violating his parole in a DUI violation four years earlier. His drug addiction was at its peak when he went to jail, but when he left he said he was completely sober and sober about the drugs. However, Houston did not come to his senses during his incarceration.
“When Whitney picked me up [from jail], of course there were drugs in the car,” he recalls. “And I didn’t want to. I’m grateful I didn’t. It’s beyond my system. I knew then that I had entered another field. I was in a different space then. That’s when my problems with her started. I want her to be as awake as I am. After that, it was hard for both of us to be together and be together. “
He said Houston was “still using hard drugs,” and while he’d gotten rid of the addiction himself, he became addicted there by becoming overly addicted to alcohol. Brown insisted that if it weren’t for drugs, they “would still be together. Drugs make us the best.”
Brown also wanted to clear up a “big misconception” that he physically abused Houston during their admittedly “turbulent” marriage. Brown was charged with battery charges after a 2003 altercation with Houston that left her with bruises on her cheeks and a cut on her upper lip. He was sentenced to 60 days in prison for violating his probation.
“A big misunderstanding of me [was that I was] Physically abused Whitney,” he said. “I never, ever hit her on purpose.
Of the injuries, Brown claimed Houston “obstructed my fight against a drug dealer we were dealing with.” He claimed he was sober and “shouted” to the dealer to make sure he didn’t come back to their house.
“Whitney got in the way,” he claimed. “My hand went back and hit her. It was the worst time of my life. It made me very sad. I never thought I’d put my hand on her and to this day I hope it didn’t happen.”
In 2006, Houston filed to separate from Brown, and their divorce was finalized the following year. When he got married for $55 million — Houston’s father made him show him his bank statement before the couple was allowed to marry “The Voice” — he had nothing, including custody of Bobbi Kristina.
“I put everything on the table,” he said, including his car, house and money. He moved to Los Angeles, where he lived in the car in the driveway of his future wife, Etheredge, until he was legally divorced. Brown then dated music manager Etheredge, with whom he had a long-term friendship, and they married in 2012.
It was also the year Houston drowned in a hotel bathtub from coronary artery disease and cocaine poisoning. Brown learned of the news while on tour with the new edition. When he stepped down, his longtime bandmates told him.
When Brown recalled being “shocked” by the news, he began to cry. “It’s unbelievable man…it was the worst time of my life knowing she was gone…I wasn’t there…I wish I could be by her side. But we’ve made our bed and we had to lie down inside.”
In hindsight, Brown said “knowing what happened…I think we could have helped each other. I think if we hadn’t divorced, she would still be here.”
After the documentary, Brown has a new documentary series, Bobby Brown: Every Step, which centers on his current life with Etheredge and goes beyond the deaths of daughter Bobbi Kristina and his son Bobby Jr., airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. after The Doctor. Starting June 7, its regular time slot is Tuesday at 9pm.