Nearly a year after the death of his daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown at age 22, singer Bobby Brown has admitted that he and his ex-wife Whitney Houston could have done more to help their troubled child.
“We should have been better,” Brown told ABC’s Robin Roberts in an interview for “20/20” airing Tuesday. “We could have been better.”
Bobbi Kristina Brown died in July 2015, six months after being found unresponsive in the bathtub of her Georgia home. An autopsy ultimately determined that she died of lobar pneumonia, the result of brain damage due to oxygen loss from water immersion and “mixed drug intoxication.”
The 22-year-old’s situation was eerily similar to the death of her mother, who was found face-down in a bathtub and died Feb. 11, 2012.
In the interview with Roberts, Brown acknowledges the similarities and makes a veiled reference to Bobbi Kristina’s boyfriend Nick Gordon, who is being sued for $10 million by Brown and Bobbi Kristina’s conservator, who allege wrongful death. (Gordon denies the allegations.)
“It’s not a mystery to me,” Brown said during the “20/20” interview. “The same thing that happened to my daughter is what happened to Whitney. … There’s only one person that was around both occasions, only one person who says they were there to protect them … and he didn’t.”
Brown raised eyebrows during an April 2015 concert when he claimed that his daughter was “awake.” During the interview with Roberts, Brown asserted that Bobbi Kristina was “definitely following me” when he visited her.
“She was definitely following me when I walked around the room, when I talked to her, when her siblings talk to her,” Brown said. “She was definitely following us.”
The singer continued, “It was reassuring. … She wasn’t able to tell me what happened, but she definitely was awake and aware.”
Watch a preview of Brown’s interview below.
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