On this, the ninth anniversary of Whitney Houston‘s untimely death, Feb. 11, 2021, many reflect on the uber-talented artist’s life and death. For some, that means reflecting on Houston and the relationship she most cherished — as mother to Bobbi Kristina Brown — and the parallels between the lives of Houston and her daughter. It’s those parallels that are in the spotlight in a new Lifetime documentary, “Whitney Houston & Bobbi Kristina: Didn’t We Almost Have It All,” that premiered Feb. 6.
While Whitney Houston may have been known to the world as ‘the voice,’ her role as mommy to Bobbi Kristina was her ‘greatest love of all.’
In 1999, when Whitney Houston was a guest on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Winfrey asked her what the second best thing is that she does. Houston pointed to a young Bobbi Kristina and said: “that right there.”
From their love of men that some may define as ‘bad boys,’ to both of their untimely deaths by drowning to both being taken advantage of because of their celebrity, there are many parallels in the lives of this mother-daughter duo.
Whitney Houston and Bobbi Kristina Brown both lived in the constant glare of the public, battled addiction and faced scrutiny for the men in their lives.
“She wasn’t only a mother she was a best friend, she was a sister, a comforter; she was just this spirit that she had like no matter where she went… no matter what she said to anyone it touched everyone,” Bobbi Kristina told Oprah Winfrey in her first televised interview following her mother’s death.
Like her mother, Bobbi Kristina had dreams of singing and acting. By the age of 22, Houston had her first number-one hit song. Houston starred in films like “The Bodyguard,” “The Preacher’s Wife,” and “Waiting to Exhale.” Brown starred in two reality shows, “Being Bobby Brown,” and “The Houstons: On Our Own.” In the years after her mother’s death, she made more headlines for alleged drug use, weight loss and family disputes.
Whitney Houston’s February 2012 cause of death was accidental drowning. Bobbi Kristina died at 22 on July 26, 2015, after being found unresponsive in her bathtub and spending nearly six months mostly in an induced coma.
Lifetime’s two-hour documentary, “Whitney Houston & Bobbi Kristina: Didn’t We Almost Have It All,” includes candid conversations with family and friends who were connected to Houston and Brown.
