In the days since news broke that the daughter of Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston, Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown, was found face down in a bathtub in her Georgia home, the world is realising how little it knows about her, her family and friends, and her condition.
News outlets reported she was married to Nick Gordon — the orphan Houston took in as a teenager, but never formally adopted. Yet, Brown’s lawyer released a statement saying that Bobbi Kristina and Gordon were never married. Gordon has not spoken publicly since Bobbi Kristina was hospitalised.
There were reports that Bobbi Kristina is brain dead, a claim that’s also been disputed.
On Thursday, Brown released a statement challenging reports by People and TMZ that family gathered at Emory University Hospital to say goodbye to Bobbi Kristina.
“If we issued a statement every time the media published a false report regarding this matter, that’s all we would be doing 24 hours a day,” Brown said in a statement to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “This is false, just as is the vast majority of the other reporting that is currently taking place.”
Bobbi Kristina, 21, remains the shared something Houston and Brown had in common — the lasting link that tied them together even after their demons, namely drug addiction, tore them apart. And now her loved ones appear to be trapped in a holding pattern.
TMZ reported on Thursday that doctors advised Brown to remove Bobbi Kristina’s life support — but that he doesn’t want to do so until after the weekend. Bobbi Kristina has been in a medically induced coma since a friend, Maxwell Byron Lomas, discovered her on January 31 and called 911, and Gordon attempted to resuscitate her.
“He immediately pulled her from the water and called 911 as well as alerting other people in the house,” Lomas’ attorney, Philip Holloway, said. “He did whatever he could do to assist in resuscitative measures until first responders arrived.”
Lomas is no stranger to law enforcement. He was arrested on January 14 on drug and weapons charges to which he pleaded not guilty, according to My Fox Atlanta. Law enforcement reportedly found no drugs “out in the open” when they responded to the emergency call on January 31. But TMZ reported that police returned and, during a more thorough search, found drugs.
Or not. Roswell police spokesman Lisa Holland told The Urban Daily, “We have not returned to the house since the incident, and we will not be making any further statements about this rescue call.”
Though still not completely clear, the circumstances of Bobbi Kristina’s hospitalisation are eerily similar to her mother’s death on February 11, 2012, at age 48. Houston was found face down and unresponsive in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton. Authorities ruled that Houston drowned, with cocaine and heart disease playing a factor in her death ahead of the Grammys.
“She wasn’t only a mother, she was a best friend,” Bobbi Kristina told Oprah Winfrey in a 2012 interview shortly after Houston’s death. “She was a sister, a comforter ... this spirit that she had, no matter where she went, no matter what she said to anyone, it touched everyone.”
But all was not well among the Houstons and Browns. Indeed, there’s long been a rift between the families. In 2013, when Winfrey asked Cissy Houston, Whitney’s mother, if Brown was a good father, Cissy sat silently. “I don’t dislike him,” she said. “I don’t particularly like the way he treated my daughter.”
Meanwhile, Bobbi Kristina was estranged from Cissy, who wrote her an open letter in 2013 after Bobbi Kristina slammed her for publishing her book, Remembering Whitney, and took to Twitter to say that she had not and would not read the book.
“I know you were upset that I wrote my book,” Cissy wrote, “but I hope one day you’ll read it and understand that I just wanted to let the world see some of My Nippy — the sweet, friendly, loving little girl with the extraordinary beauty and boundless talent, who grew into the superstar and musical icon the world saw.”
Brown and Houston divorced in 2007, and he left her funeral early after he wasn’t allowed to sit with Bobbi Kristina. Bobbi Kristina and her father were also reportedly estranged.
Money is also part of this drama. Bobbi Kristina was Houston’s sole heir, so the legality of her marriage to Gordon may play some role in decisions about her care and her estate. Bobbi Kristina wore a wedding band set, and she and Gordon frequently referred to each other as husband and wife on Twitter. Yet Bobbi Kristina’s aunt, Pat Houston, obtained a restraining order last year that requires Gordon to remain 200 yards away from her.
That could be a big deal. Pat is executor of the trust fund Houston left Bobbi Kristina. In a March 2014 police report obtained by People, Pat told an Alpharetta, Georgia, police officer that Gordon requested that Bobbi Kristina receive a bigger allowance, and Pat refused.
