An Urgent Warning from Bobby Brown

to Whitney? Now? Were there no warning signs with Bobby Christina? Thank God that I had someone like my wife to wait for me. This is going to be a deep one today. I just wanted to take the time to talk to our Table Talk family. We are bringing out Bobby Brown. His been a part of many of our lives who are very very long time and we've actually witnessed a lot of the traumas that he's had to confront. I want to approach his journey with compassion and with love.

This table is about healing. So anyone who feels like you're in a position that you can judge this might not be the conversation for you. Today he see Grammy winner. Bobby Brown started R and B group New Addition when he was just twelve, the bad boy of the genre. He's been labeled the villain for the last thirty years, and many blamed him for the downfall of his ex wife, beloved Icon Whitney Houston. But there's so much more to

the story. His life has been plagued by trauma, an unspeakable edgedy, the loss of his daughter Bobby Christina, and death of his son Bobby Jr. Just five months ago. The cause of death for Bobby Brown Jr. The combined effects of alcohol, cocaine and fentnel. Damn. Yeah, hey, hello, it's been a long time. What are you doing. You smell so good. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, wellomele Y, thanks for having me, Bobby, thanks for coming. The reason why we wanted to bring you to the table today is to

talk about generational trauma. I believe that you have a testimony for people that can be so healing, because Bobby, you've been through so much. When we can look at certain cycles that are happening within our own lives and you can learn from other people's journeys, I know that you've just lost a son. Yeah, yeah, Bobby. Losing him was very, very unexpected, just like losing my daughter. We were just in the studio two nights before. It was

something that hit me really, really hard. He was a musician, played piano, played drums. He was a great writer. He was a teacher and learner. He learned from everybody that he was around, and he taught just as much as he learned. Um. He was someone that I just I admired him as a young man and how he grew up. He just wanted to be a part of something that was going to be special. His smile, when he smiled, he just brightened up a room. Did you know that

he was struggling in regards to drugs. I did not know that. And and and let me get it make it clear. He wasn't that he wasn't a user. He would experiment with different things. It wasn't like he was dependent on drugs. Like when I was in my situation, I depended. He was a young man that tried the wrong stuff and it took him out of here. On the morning of November, Bobby Junior's girlfriend found him unresponsive on his bedroom floor in Colt nine one one. He

was pronounced dead on the scene. Bobby Brown has a critical warning. Black market drugs are being secretly laced with fentanyl and killing at an alarming rate. Accidental overdoses are happening by the thousands. Just three milligrams can be fatal a hospital great painkiller used after surgery under doctor's orders only. Fentinol has become a favorite of street dealers because it's

cheap to make and highly addictive. Most have no idea they are taking an opioid that can kill within twenty minutes. Fentanol can be fifty times more potent than heroin and has been named the deadliest drug in America. Wow, in these kids today, they're trying different things. They're trying to get as high as they can possibly get. That's a real problem because they don't know what these drugs are

being mixed with these days. Drugs is a is a game, you know, And there's been so many deaths, specifically with fent it's just skyrocketed. My generation is kind of spiraling. There's murderers out there right now that that are creating these these synthetic drugs that that are killing these kids. It's like the committing murder. Yeah, absolutely, it's homicide. You guys don't have any idea who the people were yet.

The investigation is still going on. I'm keeping my fingers and toes cross that find the people and get these these drugs off the street. But my babies are gone. I've been through my time, and I know that my time played a part in my son feeling he can test something, you know, and I feel guilty about that when you think about just having a child. I don't even know when I came to this realization and understanding. I'm sure that it was sometime after I got clean.

Every single thing that you do, everything that you do, every decision that you make, is going to affect that human life, and I absolutely we did not consider that at seventeen years old. Definitely, Bobby Christina and Bobby Jr. They were close in age? Were they were? They close in Bobby Christina, the daughter Bobby and Whitney, lovingly named after her father, was found face down in the bathtub with drugs in her system, tragic circumstances that eerily married

her mother's death three years earlier. Bobby Christina never regained consciousness and passed six months later. She was only twenty two. When you think about Bobby Christina and you think about her journey in regards to what she might have experienced or internalized in the context of a generational trauma, her drug addiction and losing her life because her her life mir yours and Whitney's, she saw firsthand things that we're wrong.

And Bobby Christina was super intelligent, bright um not wanting to be like her mom or myself. I just think

about the generational healing process. There's so much personal healing that needs to happen, breaking those cycles and moving into healthier cycle right absolutely, and it confuses it confused things, and she unfortunately was stuck in a relationship, an abusive relationship with a man that with a boy, I should say that basically controlled her to the point where her life was taking When Bobby Christina was eight years old, her mother took in a friend's son, a twelve year

old boy named Nick Gordon. Bobby Christina and Nick grew up together. After Whitney stap they started dating and moved into a suburban Atlanta townhouse with two other roommates. The couple was eventually engaged. It was a toxic relationship. Nick kept multiple run ins with the law, and on the night Bobby Christina was found face down in the bathtub, one of the roommates testified she witnessed Nick kicking Bobby Christina, at one point knocking out our tooth. In a judgele

Nick was legally responsible for Bobby Christina's death. Less than four years later, Nick Gordon, the former boyfriend of Whitney Houston's daughter Bobby Christina Brown, is dead. Nick died of a heroin overdose. So you believe that there was foul playing Bobby Christina's got it? Okay? Like that maybe he drugged her? Wow? Okay? He was the only one there with both uh situations with my ex wife and with my daughter, and they both died the same way, So

that he killed Whitney as well. I believe. So got it? Got it? Got it? Do you think that he provided Bobby Christina and Whitney with the drugs? How do you think that he's culpable? Yeah? I think this is my opinion of of of who I think this young man was, um being around my daughter and being around my ex wife. I think he was more so a provider of you know party. Did you ever have a chance to confront that young man. Okay, no, I didn't. In fact, before his death, I was in rehab at the time when

he passed. I had planned on once I left rehab two to approach the young man, just to find out how my daughter was in the last days. But I know I never got a chance to, you know, find out from him or talk to him. Were there no warning signs that there was some domestic violence that was happening with Bobby Christina, Not for me. I wasn't told about it. Other people might have saw it, that that were around her um, but I I didn't see it, and she didn't tell me anything. How did you find out?

I found out after her passing? That was the hard part. I don't know why I didn't see it. But we hadn't been spending as much time together after her mother's death as we should have as a father and given me your um point of view around Bobby Christina's death, how do you grab more with that? Lots of prayer, lots of prayer, of these thoughts that go through your head. But the three four months before her passing, we had become closer and closer. I know she had plane ticket

and everything ready to come stay with me. It was just um matter of two days before. She would have been on the flight, two days before this all happened. If I could just get those two days back, you know, she's still be here because I would have found out what was going on to do something about it. It was rough, and it still is rough. I think about it every day. I'm filled with um how don't want to say it like it's it's pushed out. I'm keeping it away from me as much as possible because I

couldn't do nothing then, and I can't do anything. It just doesn't make sense to hold on. We really beat ourselves up. It's like self punishment. It's one of the biggest parts of the healing process is that we do the best that we can, all right, and recognizing your powerlessness. Yeah, you can sit in question and question questions. In my own journey and my own therapy sessions and even going through the steps, you know, trying to figure out the

why of everything, that's the hard part. It's really hard. And sometimes I just couldn't always get to the answer, Like I can't always get to the answer. And I realized that at the end of the day, it's really not that important. It is what it is, man, what are you going to do about it? Starting Baby Christina's Serenity House for us was essential to the process because domestic violence it's like a hush hush thing. People need to start speaking up if they see someone in a

situation like that, help them. All it takes is one phone call, find the counseling that they need. Um, and we try to help as much as possible. You in Whitney had an abuse of volatile relationship. The violence that we we occurred was using you know, that's violence in itself. Absolutely, that's abuse. We abuse drugs and alcohol. We fought hard verbally, Yeah,

and we loved even harder. Yeah. And the volatility that we witnessed on on particularly on the show that you Guys had, Yeah, and the idea that if you're dealing with addiction, that's it. Verbally it gets really really messy. Yeah. Our love was strong for each other. We showed it to each other time and time again, over and over. We just got caught up in that had nothing to do with how we felt about each other. The love

was always there. Um. We tried so hard. We struggled really hard as a couple to get cleaned for ourselves. I got clean a long time before she did. We were already divorced. She was a strong woman. She was fighting really hard to save her own life. I had strength enough for myself at that time, being an addict, I had to save myself in order to be able to save someone else. I had to save myself first. Absolutely. Unfortunately we grew apart while I was trying to find myself.

In regards to the stories that we hear, one of the biggest is that you were the person that introduced narcotics to her. All those years everybody thought it was you. After years of intense speculation that Bobby brought drugs into Whitney's life. In our brother Michael confessed, So here's the big question, did you introduce her to drugs? Yeah? For so many years people about Bobby Brown was the one who introduced to drugs, but she was already doing drugs

by the time she met Bobby Brown. In this book, Bobby revealed that the first time he saw Whitney and just cocaine, who was on their wedding day. I don't look at point in the finger. You know, we get it together, you know, and it's not that I started her or she started me. Drugs is Drugs is a bad thing. You get caught up in it. Once you're caught up in it, you know there's no stopping there

is because mostually you are attracted to that energy. Yeah, and that energy, it starts to take over the relationship. It starts to take over who you are as people. And that's what happened between us. When you look in that mirror that reflects back, what do you think that Bobby would say to Whitney? Now, she's definitely missed um in my heart and you know, in my spirit she was my friend. She was the mother of my child.

One of the greatest entertainers that I've ever met, greatest saying as the drawing of the greatest voices the world has ever been witness too. For sure, I this one is so good. I know for what it all meant. God has a plan that you know, I can't question. It was already written in the book. So how long have you been clean? I've been clean nineteen years from narcotics, going on a year from alcohol. I caught myself in time.

I look at it, as you know, I can't get no worse than I was because I know my bottom. I want to know exactly what was your rock bottom, what finally got you off of drugs? Prison? Going to jail is what got me totally cleaned off of narcotics. That was something that I've never thought I would spend a day in jail, and I went to jail for d y. How much time to you? Sixty days? Yeah, whoa, that's enough time? Sounds like an eternity. It is. I

felt like an internity without narcotics. The first twenty days. It was just it was hell and you were locked up so you had to. And when I got out, it was just like damn. I was glad that I was thankful that they put me in jail. I was seeing everything for the first time again. Everything looked beautiful. What made you decide to get totally clean from all mine and mood altering chemicals? Because you said you stopped drinking as well. With alcohol, I started losing bodily function.

My body started shutting down because I was drinking that much. My body just was giving out on me. Even with alcohol. I got to a point where I needed it. I wasn't getting drunk anymore. I wasn't getting a little tipsy anymore. I needed it to wake up, needed it to stop the shakes, to function on a daily day basis. For me, it wasn't recreational. It was and yet it had to do it. And then my wife was telling me, you

need to go do something. My kids was looking at me strange when they see their father losing, you know, bodily function in front of them. And I'm a grown man, and you know, that was something I couldn't accept for myself. I couldn't accept going to the bathroom myself. I couldn't accept that. And I said to myself, no, I have to stop this. So I got to get better. You're talking about being clean, What was your process, because you know, the recovery process is so much more than just not using.

And in my recovery process and now I'm thirty years in, I have thirty years cleaning. I believe in the twelfth Step program program is what I believe in. Also, I didn't love that. I go day by day. I stick to it because that's the only way I'm gonna live. Way I'm gonna maintain my sobriety. And that's important to me. That's more important to me than anything else. What coping mechanisms do you use now to deal with your grieving process?

For me, I don't care what the emotion was. I celebrated with getting high, right, whether I was happy, said I go to sleep now, I don't pass out. You know, I wake up in the morning and hit my knees. I don't roll out of bed. Um. So my whole being, my whole feeling about life has changed. You know. Seeing my four year old, my five year old wake up in the morning and immediately come to wake me up. That lets me know that someone small like depends on me.

When you think about the little ones and you think about your father journey with Bobby Christina, with Bobby Jr. What are you changing my lifestyle? Right? My way, my ways of living. I can only teach by example. And that was the one thing that I saw growing up in my household. I saw drug use. I saw robbery, death and killings and things like that. I thought it was cool to be smoker joint and drink a pine of Hennessy and feel good at that time because that's

what I saw. That's all that I saw. But realizing it was a generational disease that my father had, my father was an alcoholic, my mom was an alcoholic. It was just passed down. And I realized that with my younger children that if I don't break this psycho who is, I have to give him the reason to live clean. If I'm not right, nothing else is gonna go right, got it. You can't heal anybody else if you can't heal yourself. That's right. And break those generational cycles right,

cut them ties. Now. I think I've said this to you one time that I was like, you know, y'all tell me to do a lot of stuff, but I'm sitting here doing what you do what you tell me. Yeah, your kids do not you say exactly? Yeah, what is your relationship like now with your other adult children? That's my life. Those are my life. Landing in La Princeia, they are my rocks. They talked me down off the ledge. I'm very proud of my older children. They're a lot

smarter than I was at their age. Landing made me a grandfather, so grandfather, yes twice over. You have a grand grand granddaughters, granddaughters. Pop. I love that I got second, third, and fourth chances at life and I'm still here. There's something that God wants me to do. I just ain't done it yet. I'm just waiting to do it. You know, this is I mean, we've had a couple of interactions,

but I haven't seen you many many, many years. But I'd have to say this is like no pun intended, but this is the most sober like you are conversation itself. There's definitely a lot of lessons. Tell me the greatest asset that your wife, Alicia has been for you. She was a friend before we became lovers. That's what I really love about our relationship. You guys have been married for what ten years? Just about just about ten years, so she's seen it all. She seen the whole bunch.

She gives me the energy to want to live right, to live righteous. That's what a good woman does. Yes, it is that must commend good women holding on to us knucklehead men and not giving up on us. And I think she helped me see the good in me that I forgot about. All I thought about was everything that I had done in my past. And you know, if I kept living in it, if I kept living in the past about what I had done, you know, in my previous relationships, I couldn't see the sunshine from

from where I was standing. Now I'm able to deal with everything that I had in my past and look forward to the future knowing that I have somebody standing strong and no matter what, she's there. Bobby and Alicia's relationship goes back decades. They met when she was a seventeen year old dancer when he was a twenty two year old star of New Addition. Friendship flourished, and Alicia

even attended Bobby and Whitney's weddings. Over the years, they drifted apart, but in two thousand and seven, they reconnected, fell in love, and began building a beautiful family together. Welcome, Thank you for having me. Hi, how are you? That's that right of dad love right there with you being by his side through the loss of Bobby, Christina, Bobby Jr. And even Whitney Mom. Dad, Whitney, Yes, it is what has been the thing that you have wanted to offer

to him, unconditional love, but really a reality check. He had a lot of yes people got it. You would go, I'm not that one, you know. I'm very direct when something is out of place and definitely red flags. I just want to be transparent and honest with him. Were you close to Bobby Jr? Yes? Absolutely, God is such a amazing human And yeah, it we're just at a loss. I think I'm still in shock. It's very new. It's terrible to say we've been here before because it never

feels the same. It just feels like more. Right. He was such a big part of our lives, such a big brother, you know, such a big person in our world. And he was a very kind individual. Did not like any drama or anyone to be upset, specifically his mom or his father. Just loving and kind, and his spirit was just calm and peaceful. What about the kids losing their big brothers. It's been rough for my my my youngest son. Yes, Cash, this is that's all He talks

about his brother, my brother and my brother, my brother eleven. Yeah, and that was his video gaming partner, his h his everything, you know, his dance teacher, his vocal coach. We just had a great conversation with Cash this recently because obviously with the news coming out of what was found in his system, it was high anxiety for me, Bobby too. So we talked to our therapists. How do we explain this?

I want him to hear it from us, and with the tools that they gave us, we sat down and we spoke honest, truthfully, what was found, how he did it? We first asked what he thought. You know, terrifying for a kid to think that maybe my brother went to sleep and wake up. You know, you don't want them to sit with that, right because that could happen anyone

go to sleep. Talking about what was found in his system and how it got in his system, and his questions were just right on, like did someone put that in him? Did he put it in himself? Did he know that was what was going to happen? And as soon as we just had the conversation, he was like solid and relieved and you could tell he had what he needed if he was addressed or if he had to read something. Let's just say, right, he's not confused when you say the tools that you were given, what

exactly were those tools that it was a therapist. We have quite a few therapists he has as yes importance. I'm just so passionate about therapy. Well with our therapist, those tools being prepared to be transparent, it can't be too tough for them to digest and understand it, saying in a layman term, speaking to him as a child, but speaking to him truth, truthfully and not trying to google. Right. Absolutely,

let's speaking to him like a human being. He is my baby, but he's an eleven year old and our tools are always to speak to cash us as if he understands, because he does, and as well, listening is very important. It's not just about what mom and dad are telling you. And we don't really want to response. What would you like to ask us? What are you concerned about? Do you understand everything we're speaking about? And

he responded like what he wanted to know? Questions? Okay, he was like, okay, can we all have a group hug? And then we all just cried for a little bit. It was it was really important. You know, we try to hide crying and all that exactly Daddy crying again. Yeah, Daddy is right. Now, let's all get Daddy a hug. That is to see real life and as a young black male, allowing him to cry and allowing him to

see you cry. Right, And I think that's one of the biggest healing process is for children that have been you know, in traumatic situations, you know, with their parents. The moments in which you and Dad were vulnerable with me, UM were the moment where I was like, okay, Like I felt the most at ease because I didn't feel like when a parent goes everything's going to be fine, it's like everything like like I'm gled to revisit that, UM.

But when you were vulnerable, I didn't have any suspicion because I was like, I mean, I'm uncertain, they're uncertain. We're in the same I'm feeling, and that we're in this together and we're gonna figure it out together. Exactly. How have you been able to be in support of

Bobby Junior's mom Kim as well. I reach out. We have had a lot more conversations because it's a healing process and we have to do it together, and I'm always reminding her that we're together a unit, and that she's not alone and we his family are always an extension of her agree together. What about your relationship with Bobby Christina, It was very difficult since she had lost

her mother to get close to her. She was managing a lot in her life that we wish she didn't have to deal with with her living in Georgia, US in Los Angeles and the disconnect, and of course with addiction and abuse, she's hiding. She's trying as much not to have us see that, and Bobby meant the world to her, So she, in her father's eyes, always wanted

to seem like she was together. And the end we did get to form a beautiful connection and we were very much looking forward to having her around us, but that didn't happen. She was dealing with this grief that was taking over her life. She was not being herself in any facet with her career and with her family and the relationship that she was in, and this person was controlling her a great deal, and she was lost

without her mother. Yea. Naturally, there's this grieving time that you need and you need to be surrounded by healing and help. Right, So tragic. So it's probably a co dependent and that's what I mean. Yeah, understand that clearly. What's that on your neck? Yeah? I've been looking at that. It's so pretty, but my wife gave it to me um a while ago. Yeah, that is beautiful. I see

why it's gorgeous when you look at it all. What do you think it takes to break the general rational cycles that you guys are breaking together, which is beautiful because I honestly believe that's what partnership is about. And then making sure that our healing is being transmitted to our children. Yeah, we're work in progress. Before therapy, we both had our own way of communicating and we didn't often understand each other's language, and that issue just bled

and spread. That's when we were like, oh, no, no, this is we need some help here. Right. We often need to learn how to listen, which was a big thing on my part. Listen, I've had I've had to get my little elephant ears growing so I can hear. Yeah, I feel you on that. And I had to work on how to communicate what I was feeling to her and to to you know, anybody else that was around me. I would hold in my feelings on how I would deal with the precious of losing a child. I'm not

wanting to speak. Holding it in made me you know, going the corner and or hide and drink. Thank God that I had someone like my wife to to sit and wait for me to get that knowledge and gain that power to express myself. I believed in him, you know, I still believe in him. And it's not easy. It's not easy waiting, but you do have to trust the journey. Yes, that's what I do. Yeah, I trust in that. We are wishing you continued healing and just wishing the best

for both of you. Your family is in all that you love. Thank you guys for having us. You wonderful. Yes, remember he started with new addition. That's just so low, that's collect classic. It's classic. Want a Grammy for that? Books like that, It's gonna step by me. Yes, it's super starb. He has the yeah yes to join the Red Table Talk family and become a part of the conversation. Follow us at facebook dot com slash red table Talk.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Red Table Talk podcast produced by Facebook Watch, Westbrook Audio, and I Heart Radio.