Whitney Houston was known as much forಠher heavenly đĽvoice as for her hellish relationship with ex-husband Bobby Brown.
She was pop musicâs pure pâŚrincess, he was a singer with a bad-boy image who had spent time behind bars.
Together,đŽ they shocked fans with one of the stormiest marriages in modern music.
At the time of their 1992 wedding, critics worried that Brown, with his history of DUIs and arrests for failing to pay support for children from previous relationships, wđĽould drag her down, and years later Houston would blame Brown for all her problems, including drug abuse and her unexpected public outbursts.
The couple had a daughter togetꌥher, Bobbi Kristina, in 1993.
But desâpite their obviođźus differences, Houston said their true personalities were not as far apart as people may have believed.
âWhen you love, you love. I mean, do you stop loving somebody because you have different images? You know, Bobby and I basically cęŚome from the same place,â she told Rolling Stone in 1993.
âI aę§m not always in a sequined gown. I am nobodyâs angel. I can get down and dirty. I đcan get raunchy.â
âWhatâs important is that we love each other,â Brown said years later of their rocky marriage. âIt doesnât matter what people say. ę§Weâre here, and weâre gonna be together for a long time.â
It would take more than a decade, however, for the public to see Houstonâs dark side âáŠáŠáŠáŠáŠáŠâ¤â¤â¤â¤áŠâ¤â¤â¤â¤áŠâ¤â¤â¤â¤áŠđąáŠáŠáŠ especially her drug abuse.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2010, she said by the time the film âThe Preacherâs Wifeâ was released, â[doing drugs] was an eveđryday thing . . . I would do my work, but after I did my work, for a wholŕ˛e year or two, it was every day,â she said.
In the Winfrey interview, Houston blamed the drug abuse on her rocky marriage to Brown, which incđłluded a charge of domestic abuse against Brown in 1993.âą They divorced in 2007.
Houston went to rehab twice before she would dđźeclare herselfâ drug-free to Winfrey.
Brown, who is on tour with his group New Edition, went ahead with his performance lastđ night in Mississippi.
âI love you Whitney. The hardeŕźst thing for me to do is to come on this stage,â he told the crowd.