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Whitney Houston welcomed her only child, daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, with husband Bobby Brown on March 4, 1993. Having been raised by two musical icons, Bobbi Kristina was no stranger to the spotlight herself; she occasionally would join Whitney and Bobby at various award shows, premieres and other red carpet events as she was growing up.
Bobbi Kristina had dreams of following in their talented footsteps as a singer and actress herself. She landed several TV gigs between 2005 and 2012, ranging from reality shows in which she played herself to a Tyler Perry-directed sitcom where she made her acting debut.
In addition to making her mark on the screen, Bobbi Kristina shined on stage from a young age — famously alongside Whitney at her concerts. When she grew older, she also recorded covers of her mom's hits, like "I'm Your Baby Tonight," a performance that was featured on Bravo's Being Bobby Brown.
But despite her parents' fame and fortune, Bobbi Kristina's home life was challenging; both of her parents struggled with drug addiction, went through a difficult divorce in 2007, and Whitney died suddenly in 2012.
On Jan. 31, 2015, Bobbi Kristina was found unresponsive in a bathtub in the Georgia home she shared with ex Nick Gordon – an eerie parallel to the way her mother had died several years earlier. She passed away in hospice on July 26, 2015.
Here's everything to know about Bobbi Kristina Brown.
She has six half-siblings through her father and several famous relatives through her mother
While Bobbi Kristina was the only child Whitney and Bobby had together, she had six half-siblings through her father's previous relationships. (Prior to Whitney, he was married to Alicia Etheredge.)
In addition to her parents, Bobbi Kristina had several other notable relatives. Her maternal grandmother was two-time Grammy Award winner Cissy Houston of The Drinkard Singers — while her mother's cousins were music greats Dee Dee Warwick, Dionne Warwick and Leontyne Price. Her mom's half-brother was former NBA player Garly Garland, Bobbi Kristina's uncle.
Gospel singer CeCe Winans was Bobbi Kristina's godmother, and her godfather was music executive Clive Davis — the music executive who discovered Whitney and fostered her career.
She's featured on a couple of Whitney's recorded songs
Like mother like daughter! Bobbi Kristina aspired to be a singer, a dream that was encouraged by Whitney since her daughter was young. Even before she joined her mom mom onstage at concerts, Bobbi's vocals were recorded and featured in Whitney's music.
Bobbi Kristina can be heard in the beginning of the 1998 single "My Love Is Your Love" off Whitney's album of the same name. During the first verse, she tells her mother, "Sing, mommy," and at the end of the track, she says, "Clap your hands!"
A few years later, Bobbi Kristina was featured on her mom's 2003 seasonal record, One Wish: The Holiday Album. The then-10-year-old can be heard on the track "Little Drummer Boy."
She made appearances on the reality show Being Bobby Brown
In 2005, Bobbi Kristina made appearances on her family's Bravo reality show, Being Bobby Brown. The single-season series centered around her father and his relationship to Whitney, Bobbi Kristina and his extended family over the course of six months.
Outside of reality TV, Bobbi Kristina dabbled in acting. She made her debut with the recurring role as Tina the receptionist in Tyler Perry's series For Better or Worse in 2012.
She was one of Whitney's 'greatest inspirations'
Whitney took parenting very seriously. "Being a mother... you kind of stop living for yourself and you start living for your children," the singer said in a 1995 interview. "Everything that I do, everything that I think, everything that I say, Bobbi Kristina is on my mind."
She often shared advice with Bobbi Kristina — and above all, wanted to instill truth in her daughter. "Be true to yourself," she said was the advice she gave. "You can fool people, you can fool anybody any time of the day, but you can't fool yourself."
And the two admired each other equally. "My daughter is my greatest inspiration," Whitney said in one of her final interviews. "My greatest, my greatest."
She announced she had married Nick Gordon
With grandmother Cissy's blessing, Bobbi Kristina reportedly wed longtime friend Nick Gordon in secret in January 2014. The coupling raised eyebrows among friends and family; Whitney had raised Gordon like a son, although she never officially adopted him.
Their relationship sparked further controversy when a laywer for Bobbi Kristina's father said the union had never happened, despite Bobbi Kristina having referred to Nick as an "incredible husband" after announcing their union. Brown's lawyer refuted the marriage took place, three days after Gordon and a friend found Bobbi Kristina unconscious in a bathtub at her Roswell, Georgia, home.
Furthermore, Gordon was found liable in her wrongful death case and ordered to pay $36 million to Bobbi Kristina's estate in September 2017. Three years later, he died of an accidental heroin overdose.
She died of drowning and drug intoxication
The Fulton County Medical Examiner revealed that Bobbi Kristina died from a combination of drowning and drug intoxication on July 26, 2015 at age 22 years old. A toxicology report found marijuana, alcohol, "a cocaine-related substance," sedative and anti-anxiety medications and morphine in her system.
Bobbi Kristina's death came after she was found unresponsive in her bathtub on Jan. 21, 2015. In the months that followed, she spent time in a rehabilitation center and hospice care until she passed away that July.
"The underlying cause of death is the condition which starts the downhill course of events leading to death and in this case is the immersion associated with drug intoxication," the medical examiner's office said in the statement at the time. "The pneumonia and encephalopathy are more immediate causes which resulted from the immersion and drug intoxication."
She was the subject of a film after her death
Lifetime released a posthumous documentary in 2021, titled Whitney Houston & Bobbi Kristina: Didn't We Almost Have It All. The two hour film presented an in-depth look inside some of the struggles that were faced by the mother and daughter, with many parallels between them.
Most recently, aspects of Bobbi Kristina's life were recounted in Kasi Lemmons' biopic, I Wanna Dance with Somebody, starring Naomi Ackie as Whitney. The film tracks Whitney's life from her time singing in the choir as a teen, getting discovered by Davis, her rise to superstardom and the pressures that accompanied that.
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