Bobbi Kristina Brown, the ill-fated daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown who died in July at age 22, descended into drug use and self-mutilation following her mother’s 2012 death, Brown’s boyfriend Nick Gordon revealed in an interview on Thursday.
During an appearance on “Dr. Phil,” Gordon told host Phil McGraw that, prior to Houston’s death, Brown used drugs “socially … maybe smoke a little bit.” However, following Houston’s death, Gordon said, Brown’s drug use “got really bad … It’s unfortunate, but at the time that’s kind of the only way that we knew how to deal with what had happened.”
After Houston died, Gordon said, Brown indulged in “pain pills and smoking … After her mom passed initially. The days where she was really thinking about it, she would go get something to numb the pain that she was feeling.”
Following Houston’s death, Gordon said, Brown also took to cutting herself.
“She started self-mutilating, and there was a big problem with that,” Gordon revealed.
Gordon noted an instance during which Brown cut herself when Houston was still alive, “and she had to be rushed to the hospital and everything because she lost a little bit of blood.”
During Thursday’s interview, Gordon denied ever having seen Houston take drugs. “If Whitney ever did drugs, she was very private about it.”
He also denied that Houston used drugs with her daughter, calling such reports “so false.”
Gordon also recalled Houston’s death at the Beverly Hilton hotel, where she was found unresponsive in her bathtub. According to Gordon, he tried to resuscitate her, to no avail.
“I tried to help with compressions to her chest, but inside, you know, ‘She’s not coming back,’” Gordon recalled. “Her lips were completely blue; you just know.”
When Gordon informed Brown of her mother’s death, he said, “She flipped out. She had been drinking, so it was even worse. She had to be rushed to the hospital.”
Bobbi Kristina Brown was found unconscious and face-down in the bathtub of her Georgia home in January 2015. She died six months later.
Gordon faces a multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed by Brown’s court-appointed conservator, who alleges that Gordon was physically abusive to Brown, and gave her a “toxic cocktail” and placed her face-down in the bathtub. Gordon has denied the allegations.