It was the freezing-cold bathwater, the broken tooth and the blaze of purple and blue bruises across her forehead and under her eyes that made me suspicious initially.
When Bobbi Kristina Brown, the only child of the late superstar singer Whitney and her former husband Bobby Brown, was found in January unconscious and face-down in the bathtub of her mother’s luxurious home in Roswell, Georgia, the world mourned the seemingly sad demise of the lonely little rich girl.
At 22, she had seemed destined to follow in her mother’s tragic footsteps. Anorexic and addicted to heroin and an array of prescription drugs, Bobbi Kristina had, since Whitney’s death from a drug overdose three years before, become isolated and depressed. She was in total thrall to her Svengali-style fiance, Nick Gordon.
On the fateful night, after a massive drugs binge following another row with Gordon, it is possible that he made a desperate attempt to revive Bobbi Kristina when he found her comatose on her bed
Nick Gordon pictured leaving his home in Sanford, Orlando, last week. He is accused of robbing her of her self-esteem, squandering her money, and flaunting his control over her.
He monitored her every move, controlled her £20million fortune â€" her legacy from her mother’s hugely successful career â€" and dominated her to such an extent that Bobbi Kristina became estranged from her friends and family. Today Bobbi Kristina lies unresponsive in a pristine white bed in an Atlanta hospice, her father constantly at her side.
She is irreparably brain damaged and all life support systems have been switched off. Save for a morphine tube, all the medical paraphernalia that had surrounded her during her six-m onth spell in two hospitals while doctors battled to wake her from a coma has been quietly packed away. Her death is inevitable. ‘She is in God’s hands now,’ says her aunt Pat Houston.
Police sources tell me the eventual autopsy report is expected to show significant amounts of heroin and a cocktail of other drugs such as Xanax in her system.
But I firmly believe that while drugs may be the cause of Bobbi Kristina’s eventual death, it was Gordon â€" her manipulative and money-grabbing boyfriend, who has already been accused of stealing millions from her fortune by the wider Houston family â€" who will be truly responsible.
After exhaustive investigations into the lifestyle led by Bobbi Kristina and 25-year-old Gordon, I am convinced it was her toxic, drug-fuelled relationship with Gordon, who has repeatedly lied â€" claiming the co uple were married (so as to inherit her fortune) â€" and cut her off from her old life, controlling her with violence and drugs, that led Bobbi Kristina on the deadly downward spiral. A drug dealer in Atlanta known as Mickey T supplied their drugs and he told me Gordon was spending more than £4,500 a week.
After more than 250 interviews with her friends and family for my book, Whitney And Bobbi Kristina: The Deadly Price Of Fame, I know that before her death, Bobbi Kristina was a troubled, clinically depressed addict, who was unable emotionally to leave her avaricious lover.
Bobbi Kristina had, since Whitney’s death from a drug overdose three years before, become isolated and depressed
And I believe that on the fateful night, after a massive drugs binge following another row with Gordon, he made a desperate attempt to revive her when he found her comatose on her bed.
Using a dangerous and controversial technique common among addicts known as The Plunge, he dragged her body to the bathroom, stripped her and pushed her into a bath filled with freezing water and ice cubes.
Gordon will have repeatedly dunked her head under the water and slapped her face in the hope she would regain consciousness. He probably knocked out a tooth and bashed her face against the bath, causing those bruises.
< p class="mol-para-with-font">When she remained comatose, Gordon and at least two others involved in supplying her drugs (one, his crony Max Lomas, was arrested for unrelated drug crimes) finally made a 911 emergency call.Gordon’s usual method of subduing his girlfriend after beating her was to lock her in her bedroom, leave drugs for her, wait for her to calm down and then force her to apologise to him. That night she overdosed.
One of Bobbi Kristina’s last, tragic acts was to post a poignant and prophetic tweet: ‘On my own.’ Now likely her epitaph, it was a metaphor for her lonely existence in the last weeks of her life.
It was posted just after 9pm on January 29 after a particularly nasty and violent row between her and Gordon.
Two days later, following another vicious argument , she finally plucked up the courage to tell him she wanted him out of her life and out of Whitney’s house where they lived. She said she was going to take out a restraining order against him and told him she was leaving for Los Angeles where she was determined to begin an acting career. Although she did not inherit her mother’s pure singing voice, film producer Tyler Perry, an old family friend, had promised her roles.Â
Bobbi Kristina knew Gordon would react violently. Just six weeks beforehand, when she had tried to broach the subject, he terrified her by pulling a handgun, brandishing it at her and threatening to pull the trigger.
The next day he apologised, telling her he had been high on drugs and had lost control.
As Gayle Thomas, one of Bobbi Kristina’s closest friends, told me: ‘I saw her the day before she was found in th e bath.
‘She was in a terrible state. She was thin and withdrawn. She was very nervous and looked tormented.
‘She was out of it, definitely high on something. At one point, she told me that, “I have a big clog in my brain and I need to get rid of it.†I know now she meant Gordon.’
Several of Bobby Kristina’s friends shared similar stories. One told me: ‘Krissi feared something bad was going to happen to her. She told me several times she couldn’t imagine living past 25.
‘She said people were out to get her, several people who wanted her “wiped off the face of the earthâ€.
‘She cried uncontrollably days before the accident, saying she “might be better off in her mother’s arms†than dealing with the “evil people†who w on’t go away.’
Another friend, who saw Bobbi Kristina two days before the overdose, says she told her: ‘I’m in fear of my life.’
The friend added: ‘She said she needed a change because if “things stay the same, I’ll end up dead. Right now I’m living in a cage.†’
With neither her mother’s talent nor her father’s charm, Bobbi Kristina (right) struggled to find her own identity
A third source told me how Gordon constantly monitored Bobbi Kristina’s access to her mobile phone and social media.
‘The only time she could contact me was when she hid upstairs in what was her mother’s walk-in wardrobe. She would sit there huddled on the floor and tell me how Nick slapped her face and threw her against walls, how there would be fistfights all the time, and how he was “after my nest â€" just after my cash.â€â€™
Alex Reid, a close friend of Bobbi Kristina, says Gordon’s hold over his fiance became complete after Whitney’s death.
‘After that Krissi felt torn between her family and the man she thought she loved â€" the man who had been by her side in those heartbreaking months after her mother died.
‘He became the closest person to her and he convinced her it was them against the world.’ Bobbi Kristina’s estrangement from the Houston clan was cemented in 2014 when her aunt Pat took out a restraining order against Gordon, fearing for her niece’s health and sanity.
‘Krissi felt isolated from the whole family and that left her completely dependent on Nick for everything,’ Alex said. ‘In the end, Krissi would talk about how Nick had access to all the credit cards. She couldn’t buy anything without his say-so.’Â
Alex says she has no idea when the domestic violence began but insists she knew of at least four occasions when Gordon beat Bobbi Kristina. ‘She also told me how he tried to choke her once. Another time she was on the phone to me for three hours. She was hyperventilating. I could barely understand her because she was so distraught. She couldn’t tell her family because she knew they would hate him even more.
‘At times she daydreamed about a whole new life away from Nick’s influence. But when he was around she ceded control to him again because he convinced her he was the only one who loved and wanted her.
‘Time and time again, she made excuses, saying he just had a bad temper. She was so browbeaten that she said she couldn’t blame him for not being able to control it.’
That Bobbi Kristina was deeply depressed and disturbed by late January this year is not in doubt. And the background to her emotional problems are rooted in her childhood. As Whitney and R&B singer Bobby Brown’s only child she was, in turn, idolised then ignored by her famous parents, whose every moment was played out in public. Their fragile, often toxic and competitive relationship â€" in which both battled for supremacy on and off the stag e â€" left her feeling abandoned and insecure.
With neither her mother’s talent nor her father’s charm, Bobbi Kristina struggled to find her own identity. She lived with Whitney when her parents separated, and though she and her mother loved one another, they had a tempestuous relationship.
Shortly before her 15th birthday Bobbi Kristina had a row with Whitney during which she flew at her with a pair of scissors before trying to slash her own wrists. She spent several months in a mental institution in Georgia.
In her late teens she started hanging out with a rough crowd and began taking all the drugs to which her mother was addicted â€" and more. It was then that she met Gordon.
Claims: Gordon may have repeatedly dunked her head under the bath water and slapped her face in the hope she would regain consciousness after the overdose
The story that he had been adopted aged 12 by Whitney was pure fabrication. He met Bobbi Kristina when she was about 18.
He was dating one of her friends but he quickly realised that Whitney’s daughter was the real cash cow.
I have no doubt that Gordon was the worst possible person for the hopeless addict that she became to have aroun d. He robbed her of her self-esteem, squandered her money, and flaunted his control over her.
Many in her family feel the same and several are consumed with guilt that they didn’t see the warning flags early enough, or that they didn’t try harder to get her out of Gordon’s clutches.
One member of her close family feels especially guilty because he was close to her.
In a series of emails to me, he poured out his concerns and fears for her, saying: ‘Bobbi Kristina is a remarkable young woman, but she has had no guidance or support.
‘I hope now people will see Nick Gordon for what he really is. He was horribly abusive towards her and I hope justice will now prevail. I hope he is finally held accountable for what he did to my beloved sister. I don’t care what the autopsy reveals about h er drug-taking. It was Nick Gordon and those around her who really killed Bobbi Kristina.’
This weekend the Houston family and Bobby Brown will take turns to sit at Bobbi Kristina’s bedside. They know it is now only a matter of time â€" nothing can reverse the extensive brain damage she has sustained.
To date they have put on a united front before the media gaze. But there is a lot of tension there.
Alex Reid, a close friend of Bobbi Kristina (left), says Gordon’s hold over his fiance became complete after Whitney’s (right) death
One of the family circle told me: ‘After Krissi passes and is laid to rest there is going to be a giant confrontation among those who feel Krissi would still be alive today if the family had done something to get her the proper support she needed for her severe drug habit and to get her away from Nick Gordon. Everybody knew that Nick was dangerous but nobody intervened. They will live with that guilt for the rest of their lives.’
Meanwhile in Florida, Gordon has been holed up at his mother’s house, spending his days lounging in her outdoor hot-tub.
He moans that he has been barred from his fiancee’s bedside an d talks about how he has lost the love of his life. No one is thinking about his grief, he says with a huge degree of self-pity.
He claims he is not responsible for her death and his family believe he has become a scapegoat. What Gordon has not addressed is the part he played in plying Bobbi Kristina with drugs and feeding her psychological problems. Nor has he spoken of the details of what happened on the night she was found in the bathtub.
Doubtless those are questions that Atlanta police will be asking. I believe he will be arrested and charged with supplying her drugs, domestic violence and, I am convinced, unintentional manslaughter.
When Bobbi Kristina is pronounced dead, Gordon will not be charged with murder. Reports clearly show the amount of drugs in her body that night. But, trust me, he did drive her to her death.
Whitney And Bobbi Kristina: The Deadly Price Of Fame, published by Simon & Schuster, amazon.com.
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