Bobby Brown Interview on Whitney Houston's Death: 'I'm Not the Reason She's Gone'
Bobby Brown sat down for an exclusive interview with the "TODAY" show's Matt Lauer to discuss the untimely death of his ex-wife Whitney Houston and to fight back against the popular perception that he was responsible for getting America's girl next door addicted to drugs.
"I didn't get high before I met Whitney. I smoked weed, I drank beer, but no, I wasn't the one that got Whitney on drugs at all," Brown told Lauer.
"It's just … its just unexplainable how one could, you know, (say that I) got her addicted to drugs. I'm not the reason she's gone," the singer added.
Brown told Lauer that drugs had been a part of Houston's life "way before" the 43-year-old met the young singer.
When asked by Lauer how he felt about Houston's toxicology report which concluded that Houston had consumed cocaine "not long" before her death, Brown told the talk show host that the news "hurt" him.
"I was hurt. I was hurt … because, you know, me being off of narcotics for the last seven years, I felt that she was, you know, I didn't know she was struggling with it still. But at the same time, you know, listen; it's a hard fight. It's a hard fight to, you know, maintain sobriety that way," the New Edition singer told Lauer.
The two-part interview, which is the first time Brown has publicly discussed the death of his ex-wife, is set to air on Wednesday and Thursday on ABC.
Houston, 48, was found submerged in a bathtub at her Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel room on Feb. 11, the day before the Grammy Awards. Her cause of death was ruled as accidental drowning following a massive heart attack caused in part by years of prolonged and excessive drug abuse.
Houston was laid to rest on Feb. 18 in her hometown of Newark, N.J.