Whitney Houston and daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown in 2012.
© Rex Features
ATLANTA — The brief, chaotic life of Bobbi Kristina Brown was never really her own.
Born and raised in the shadow of fame and litigation, shattered by the loss of her mother, Whitney Houston, Bobbi Kristina was overwhelmed by the achievements and demons of others before she could begin to figure out who she was.
Her demise was the most awful inheritance of all.
Bobbi Kristina died on Sunday, about 7 months after she was found face-down and unresponsive in a bathtub in the suburban Atlanta townhome she shared with Nick Gordon, the man she called her husband. She was 22-years-old.
“Bobbi Kristina Brown passed away July 26, 2015, surrounded by her family. She is finally at peace in the arms of God. We want to again thank everyone for their tremendous amount of love and support during these last few months,” Kristen Foster, a representative for the Houston family said Sunday.
Police said she was found Jan. 31 in the suburban Atlanta townhome she shared with Gordon. A police report described it as a “drowning.”
Bobbi Kristina was the only child between Houston and Brown.
She was hospitalized for months in Atlanta — eventually being placed in hospice care — after being found in a manner grimly similar to the way her megastar mother died three years earlier. The police report called it a “drowning,” and Gordon said at the time it seemed she wasn’t breathing and lacked a pulse before help arrived.
Brown — the sole heir of her mother’s estate — did have dreams.
She identified herself on Twitter as “Daughter of Queen WH,” ”Entertainer/Actress” with William Morris & Co., and “LAST of a dying breed.” She told Oprah shortly after her mother’s death in 2012 that she wanted to carry on her mother’s legacy by singing, acting and dancing. But her career never took off. Actor and producer Tyler Perry said she had a future as an actress after her debut on his TV show “For Better or Worse” in 2012, but she only appeared in one episode. Aside from two ill-fated reality TV shows and the occasional paparazzi video, her image mostly showed up in the “selfies” she posted online.
She attended award shows and appeared on red carpets with her mother and father. She performed a duet on TV with her mother in 2009, singing “My Love Is Your Love” in New York’s Central Park. She became social media sensation, sending more than 11,000 tweets and attracting 164,000 followers.
But Whitney Houston, known as “America’s Sweetheart,” was an impossible act to follow