Daughter's death - 'If I could have been there'

Bobby Brown at the funeral of his daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown in New Jersey in February.
Bobby Brown at the funeral of his daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown in New Jersey in February. PHOTO: REUTERS

TAMPA (Florida) • R&B singer Bobby Brown, in his first interview since the death of his daughter with singer Whitney Houston, said the outcome could have been different if he had been with her shortly before an incident that left her with irreversible brain damage.

In an emotional interview set to air next Monday, he teared up talking about his 22-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, whose July death came six months after she was found face down and unresponsive in a bathtub in her suburban Atlanta home.

"If I could have been here two days before, it wouldn't have went down like that," her father said in clips released ahead of the broadcast. The interview is scheduled to run on the talk show The Real on Fox stations, as well as on the Bet cable network.

Bobbi Kristina's death was eerily similar to that of her Grammy- winning mother, who drowned in a bathtub at a Beverly Hills hotel in 2012 at age 48.

The authorities have said cocaine abuse and heart disease contributed to the death of Houston, who had battled substance abuse. Bobbi Kristina was her only child.

In the interview, Brown said he had prayed for six months for a better outcome but "when God calls you, he calls you".

"I'm pretty sure her mother had a part in this, like, come on, let's get her up here," he said, suggesting the pair would be together in heaven.

Conflicts among Bobbi Kristina's family and her close friends played out publicly during the months in which she was in a medically induced coma.

A court-appointed conservator for Bobbi Kristina, who inherited her mother's fortune, has filed a civil lawsuit accusing her boyfriend, Nick Gordon, of causing her death.

His representative could not immediately be reached for comment. No one has been criminally charged in the case.

REUTERS

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 16, 2015, with the headline Daughter's death - 'If I could have been there'. Subscribe