Bobbi Kristina “Krissy” Brown, daughter of the late legendary singer Whitney Houston and R&B musician Bobby Brown, died Sunday at Peachtree Christian Hospice in Duluth, Ga. She was 22.
“It is hard to say goodbye. On Sunday, July 26, Bobbi Kristina Brown made her transition peacefully,” the Houston family wrote in a statement on Whitney’s official website. “The family thanks everyone for their loving thoughts and prayers. As Bobbi Kristina would say: ‘The wind is behind me and the sun is in my face.’”
The celebrity offspring’s death followed months of medical treatment after she was found face down and unresponsive in a bathtub at her Roswell, Georgia, home on Jan. 31.
Bobbi Kristina was rushed to North Fulton Hospital in Roswell, placed in a medically induced coma and connected to a ventilator. She was later transferred to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and spent her final days at a rehabilitation center before being moved to hospice care.
In an April interview, her grandmother Cissy Houston revealed that the 22-year-old had suffered “global and irreversible brain damage” and there was little chance of recovery.
Bobbi Kristina was Whitney and Bobby’s only child. Her death was especially chilling given that Whitney was found dead of a drug overdose in a bathtub at a Los Angeles hotel on Feb. 11, 2012, during Grammy Awards weekend.
Born on March 4, 1993, Bobbi Kristina grew up in the spotlight. She was featured on the Bravo reality series “Being Bobby Brown,” which offered an inside look at Whitney and Bobby’s private lives.
Bobbi Kristina’s parents divorced when she was 14, and Houston gained custody of the teenager. Her childhood was described in numerous articles over the years as difficult, with writers citing Whitney and Bobby’s drug and marital problems.
The celebrity offspring had a very close bond with her mother, and was just 18 when Houston died. The teenager was in the lobby of the Beverly Hilton Hotel when authorities pronounced Houston dead in an upstairs suite. Bobbi Kristina was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center that night to be treated for stress and anxiety.
Like her parents, Bobbi Kristina was soon the subject of reports of drug use. In 2011, the National Enquirer ran photos of her snorting a white powder, but Bobbi Kristina denied using drugs, saying she was set up by an ex-boyfriend.
Bobbi Kristina inherited her mother’s multimillion dollar estate. As the then-teen grieved, she grew closer to Nick Gordon, who Houston helped care for and affectionately referred to as her son.
Once Bobbi Kristina and Gordon began to date, their relationship raised eyebrows and sparked tabloid headlines, which frequently described him as her “brother-boyfriend.”
In Sept. 2013, Bobbi Kristina announced their engagement on Twitter and posted pictures of her diamond ring. The two declared their love on social media and on Jan. 9, 2014, Bobbi Kristina tweeted that they were husband and wife, writing: “Happily married. So in love.”
But in a statement a year later, Bobby Brown’s attorney, Christopher Brown of Brown & Rosen LLC, said that Bobbi Kristina and live-in partner Gordon were never married.
As police looked into the circumstances surrounding the bathtub incident, tensions mounted between Gordon and Bobbi Kristina’s family. Gordon would later admit in a series of Twitter posts that he had been barred from visiting her bedside.
In a Feb. 25 post, he pleaded to see her. “Whitney told me to protect [her] and i did with no help,” Gordon tweeted.
Meanwhile, Bobby Brown’s sister Leolah Brown said in a television interview that she believed Gordon had something to do with Bobbi Kristina’s near-drowning, and added that he would be implicated.
“I believe Nick Gordon will be charged with this,” she said. “I hope that he will be charged with this, as well. Soon. I really do.” The case is still ongoing.
Before she fell ill, Bobbi Kristina dreamed of a career in show business.
In May 2012, she landed a recurring role on the Tyler Perry TBS sitcom “For Better or Worse.”
But her stint on the show was short-lived. After taping began, media reports surfaced saying that Bobbi Kristina had fled the set in tears. Perry denied that she had quit the show and posted a lengthy message on his website urging fans to “Leave This Baby Alone and Stop the Lies Please!!!”
Even though Perry disputed claims of trouble during production, Bobbi Kristina appeared in just one episode of the sitcom, according to her IMDB page.
A few months later, she gave reality television another try on Lifetime’s “The Houstons: On Our Own.” The series chronicled the lives of Whitney Houston’s family members as they moved on from her death.
Bobbi Kristina also pursued a singing career. On Jan. 29, 2015, just two days before the fateful bathtub incident, she tweeted the news to her followers along with several musically-themed emojis, writing: “Let’s start this career up & moving out…”
Six months later, Bobbi Kristina died.