After facing addiction and deep sadness, Bobby Brown has found some peace – and is finally sharing his story.
The R&B singer is reflecting on his decades-long career – along with the many triumphs and tragedies that came along with it – in a new tell-all documentary on A&E premiering on May 30 titled “Biography: Bobby Brown.”
In the televised sit-down, the 53-year-old reflects on his tumultuous childhood in Boston, his rise to stardom, a crippling battle with addiction, his ill-fated marriage to America’s sweetheart Whitney Houston, the deaths of his two young children and how he managed to find love again.
Brown told Fox News Digital that sobriety has compelled him to address his painful past. He hoped that in speaking out, long-standing rumors that have plagued him will finally be put to rest.
“I have been approached several times by different networks and it just didn’t really work out,” he explained. “And I needed to heal. I had lost two of my kids. When A&E approached me, they shared that they wanted to talk about the real life of Bobby Brown. I figure, why not do it now and get some therapy doing it? Because it was therapeutic. I just felt that right now was a good time.”
Brown quit hard drugs while he was incarcerated in 2000, but he continued to struggle with alcohol addiction throughout the years. He last spent time at a treatment facility for alcohol abuse in 2020. Today, a clean Brown said that sobriety – along with prayer – has helped him face the losses and the trauma he’s experienced.
“I work on my sobriety every day,” he said. “It’s a day-to-day thing. As long as I work hard every day on it, I continue to get great results. I have a loving family and a loving wife. I just want to be better for them. I want to be better for myself also. It’s been an uphill battle, but it’s been a battle I continue to win with prayer. That and therapy, along with love, have saved me.”
“There were so many times that I said to myself, ‘I want to get clean,’” he continued. “And I actually got clean from narcotics. That was so long ago and I’m thankful for it. But alcohol had played a big part in my life. I just had to get that one thing off my back. It’s been a long time since I’ve wanted to be full of life again. I finally had the chance and I’m taking full advantage of it.”
In the special, Brown shared a secret that he’s kept hidden for over 40 years. He recalled how, as a child, he witnessed his mother being beaten and arrested by police after she attempted to intervene in the arrest of some neighbors. As a result, Brown was sent to temporary custody by social services.
“It was supposed to be a religious place, but it wasn’t a very nice place to be for a child,” he revealed in the documentary. “One of the priests tried to molest me. He tried to touch my private parts… At that time, I was a young boy. I didn’t know what sexual boundaries were. I just knew I didn’t like being touched. Some things are hard to forget.”
Brown said it was important for him to be honest with the public and free himself of the shame that has weighed him down for decades.
“The misconception that I feel [the public] has about me is that they don’t understand me,” he shared. “They haven’t [understood me]. They don’t know how hard I’ve worked at being a better built Bobby.”
Brown would later skyrocket to fame as a founding member of New Edition, an ‘80s R&B group that was meant to be a “new edition” of the Jackson 5. Brown flourished as an eager entertainer who escaped his rough neighborhood. But there’s one lesson he wished he’d taken more seriously along the way.
“I wish I would’ve taken more time to grow up, to become an adult,” he admitted. “I think that growing up in this business, you grow up pretty fast. You have to grow up pretty fast to be able to navigate through this industry. But I wish I could go back and tell myself to take my time.”
By the ‘90s, Brown branched out on his own as a successful solo artist. His new bad boy image and flings with stars like Madonna and Janet Jackson kept him in the headlines.
Then Houston, the pop princess with a seemingly squeaky clean image, came along. Tabloids called the union odd and insisted they were doomed from the start. Still, their whirlwind romance endured. The couple tied the knot in 1992.
But behind closed doors, both stars faced their individual battles with addiction. They officially called it quits in 2007. Houston would later become a shocking cautionary tale of the toll of drug use. Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once serene image was shattered by a wild demeanor and bizarre public appearances. She confessed to abusing cocaine, marijuana and pills, and her once-pristine voice became raspy and hoarse, unable to hit the high notes as she had during her prime.
In 2012, Houston passed away from a drug-related accidental drowning at age 48. It was a tragic fall for a superstar who was one of the top-selling artists in pop music history, with more than 55 million records sold in the United States alone.
Brown was often blamed by the press for Houston’s tragic demise. He has previously denied allegations that their relationship ever turned violent. In the years following the star’s death, many who were close to the former couple have alleged that it was Houston who influenced Brown in the use of hard drugs.
In the documentary, Brown said Houston didn’t quit drugs when he did, which significantly impacted their marriage. Still, Brown didn’t wish for a divorce. Looking back, Brown wished he could have found a way to help Houston embrace sobriety. Today, he still wonders what could have been.
“That was pretty rough,” said Brown. “Not many people knew what was going on. Not many people knew how [those accusations] affected me. Not many people knew what they were talking about. They weren’t living, breathing, or waking up with us. They just took it to the outer limits of expressing what they thought was going on. But the truth is, they really didn’t know what was going on.”
Brown shared that whenever he hears his ex-wife’s voice on the radio, he can’t help but smile. And he insisted that speaking out about his marriage was needed for his current union.
In 2012, Brown married his longtime pal Alicia Etheredge-Brown. The pair first met in the late ‘80s and their friendship lasted over the years. They have since welcomed three children together: Cassius, 13, Bodhi, 6, and Hendrix, 5.
“It was very therapeutic for my marriage, now, [to talk about Whitney],” he said. “It’s important to know what to do and what not to do. We have a great marriage. Whitney and I, we had a great run, and I want better for my life, you know?”
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