by Ian Halperin
“It is highly unusual for a sibling-type relationship to turn romantic,” she revealed. “Even non-siblings reared in close quarters such as a kibbutz in Israel show lower rates of marriage than would normally be expected. Familiarity may breed love but our genes intuitively know that cross-mixing our genes offers our offspring a better chance of survival and we are not attracted to family members.”
Meanwhile, as Bobbi remained comatose back in Atlanta, new unconfirmed reports were dribbling out about the investigation.
Nick Gordon—undoubtedly on the advice of his lawyer—refused to talk to the police about the events of January 31. Now homeless and without the seemingly endless money supply he had become accustomed to from Bobbi’s monthly allowance, he was clearly without the means to strike back against the endless negative media reports that were painting him as somehow responsible for his girlfriend’s dire condition. Presumably, with sufficient resources, he would have hired a publicist to clean up his image. Instead, he turned to social media, which he and Bobbi had frequently used over the years to apprise the world of their relationship.
On February 1, the day after Bobbi was found, Nick had been photographed leaving North Fulton Hospital. It was also the day Bobby arrived from LA to be at his daughter’s side. It appeared to be the last time Nick was allowed anywhere near the woman he still professed to be his wife. Radar Online reported that on that visit he had to be forcibly ejected from the premises. Their source didn’t witness what started it but they heard a scuffle coming from inside Bobbi Kristina’s unit. “About maybe two to three minutes later, [a family member] came back with [Nick] and they had their hands on him, like holding on to him, and you could see that everybody was distressed. Officers arrived on the scene and physically escorted him from the floor. The whole incident was very upsetting.”
Although the report was unconfirmed, Nick started issuing increasingly desperate tweets aimed at Bobby Brown, pleading to be allowed by Bobbi’s bedside:
“Real talk let her hear my voice she will wake up” [sic], he tweeted in mid-February.
“If anything happened to Krissi I wouldn’t be able to handle it. I’m strong but not strong.”
“Man to man I love your daughter . . .”
“I don’t know why you won’t let me see her . . .”
“Your daughter is going to hate you when she wakes up. It’s not like you know her anyways [sic].”
“What’s her favorite color? What’s her favorite smell, movies, food. You don’t know.”
“Crazy how all the Browns came to the hospital when this went down,” Gordon tweeted on February 23.
“I’ve been with her 24/7 watching over her and mom. Bobby left when it got heavy.”
“I can’t wait till she wakes up and dismiss all of the negative thoughts. There is a reason why her mom made me promise to look after her.”
“I’ve been to the hospital bet you didn’t know that with Tyler Perry my baby’s lawyer and a couple of AUNTs,” he tweeted on February 23, apparently referring to his February 1 visit prior to being ejected.
He also shared photos of a new tattoo bearing Bobbi’s name along his forearm.
“Healing just fine like my baby,” he posted with a photo of the tat.
Stepping up his offensive, he went on a further tirade against Brown, implying that money was Bobby’s only motivation for his concern over Bobbi’s welfare.
On February 21, Brown’s lawyer finally responded to Nick’s accusations, revealing that Gordon had been given an opportunity to visit Bobbi if he agreed first to tell her father what happened on the day his daughter was found. So far, Nick had refused to do so.
“Obviously Mr. Gordon is not as desperate to visit Bobbi Kristina as he wants the world to believe,” Christopher Brown told the E! network. “At least not desperate enough to inform Bobby Brown, in writing, what happened to Bobbi Kristina.”
In response, Nick’s lawyers issued a statement:
“Mr. Brown is not law enforcement,” his lawyers said. “However, in response to requests from law enforcement, Mr. Gordon and others have made statements. All Mr. Gordon wants from Mr. Brown is permission to see Bobbi Kristina. And again, Mr. Gordon is willing to meet privately with Mr. Brown to discuss this.”
Most of the family remained tight-lipped about what they had been told by medical and law enforcement authorities. Presumably, Bobby had been apprised of their findings to date but he was not sharing information with anyone outside the family. That’s why the public took notice when Bobby’s sister Leolah Brown gave an interview to Atlanta’s Fox 5 news—the first time a family member had spoken publicly about Bobbi.
Leolah, who had once worked as Whitney’s assistant, was unequivocal, predicting that “Nick Gordon will 110 percent be charged” for a crime.
Asked by a reporter what evidence the police have against him, she responded, “I’m not going to comment on that but I believe Nick Gordon will be charged with this. I hope that he will be charged with this as well. Soon. I really do.”
For the first time, Leolah also revealed that Bobbi’s condition might not be as dire as had been reported to that point. The reporter pressed her about recent reports that the family was planning to take Bobbi off life support.
“There are so many signs showing us that she will be okay in spite of what people are saying over the Internet. Krissi is fine as I sit here before you today.”
Asked if doctors had told the family she’s improving, Leolah replied, “Yes ma’am . . . We know that she’s opening her eyes. That’s true, and there’s a few more things that she’s doing but Krissi is doing well right now. She is.”
She also revealed that she suspected as far back as two years ago that harm might come to her niece and repeatedly tried to reach out to her “a couple of times,” but her help was never well received.
“I saw this coming,” she revealed. “I told Krissi not to trust anybody, and I meant that.”
Her prediction that Nick would be charged caused a sensation, but Nick quickly reiterated on Twitter that he would be cleared of suspicion when Bobbi recovered.
“When she wakes up and tells the truth I wish I could see the look on your faces,” he tweeted.
So far, the only reliable source to hear Nick’s version of the events of January 31 appeared to be documentary producer Daphne Barak, who had befriended Bobbi and Nick while working on a production with them in 2012. CNN had reported that police were looking into bruises found on Bobbi’s body when paramedics found her on January 31.
Barak revealed to TV host Nancy Grace that she had spoken on the phone with Nick, who told her that he explained the origins of those bruises to police.
“They asked him about injuries on the chest and he told them it was when he was doing the CPR,” Barak told HLN’s Nancy Grace. “She was very tiny. He was very frustrated to save her so it made sense to me,” Barak added.
Barak said she believed that Nick and Bobbi were very much in love. “These two young people—he was everything for her, she was everything for him,” she told Grace.
Soon afterward, another person stepped forward to publicly defend Nick from the accusations swirling around him. Bobby’s nephew Jerod Brown posted a tweet that Nick immediately retweeted on his account:
“I really felt if she was in danger she would’ve told me. She only spoke highly of @nickdgordon . . . never downed him only uplifted him #Facts.”
Still, if Nick had nothing to hide, Bobby Brown wasn’t the only one to wonder aloud why he was refusing to give his version of events. The suspicion escalated when it was reported by the Atlanta Journal Constitution that Gordon’s lawyer had filed a temporary restraining order in Fulton County Superior Court to prevent police from carrying out a search warrant for footage captured on his in-home security camera. The Atlanta Journal Constitution obtained documents showing that the restraining order also sought to keep the company that owns the surveillance system from complying with a police search warrant.
/> “The Search Warrant violates the Fourth Amendment in that it is overly broad and seeks private data ‘without limitation,’ and fails to narrowly limit the scope of the data sought by date or other characteristics,” reads the filing.
“On February 12, 2015, Nest notified via email its customer, Nicholas Gordon . . . that it had received ‘legal process’ for data and documents related to the account and that it intended to comply.”
Nick’s lawyers protested, saying, “There is an insufficient link between the crime alleged in the search warrant, specifically ‘possession of a controlled substance.’ ”
After a backlash resulted from Nick’s apparent attempts to interfere with the police investigation, his lawyers announced that they were withdrawing their petition.
Employees from a Roswell strip mall and bank close to Bobbi’s town house had already reported that police had confiscated footage from their surveillance cameras taken on the day Bobbi was discovered.
Nick again took to Twitter to address the backlash. “I’ve talked to the cops no lawyer,” Gordon tweeted. “If Roswell Detectives know how to do there [sic] job everything is cool. #don’t fabricate.”
To this point, the media reports were so unreliable and conflicting that most observers had no idea what to believe. Every day, it seemed, another theory was floated about what had happened on that January morning. Watching from my base in Miami, and trying to determine how to begin my own investigation, I was as confused as ever. But then I picked up People, which is pretty much the only reliable media outlet when it comes to celebrity reporting. The magazine is so meticulous about its fact-checking that it usually refuses to print unconfirmed rumors. The resulting coverage is therefore not as sensational or interesting as its counterparts but is rarely if ever wrong. Therefore, I immediately took notice when the weekly reported the results of its own investigation on February 21.
“Bobbi Kristina Brown was under the influence of drugs the morning she was found unresponsive in her bathtub, a source familiar with the details of the situation tells PEOPLE.”
The magazine revealed that “multiple sources” who know Bobbi confirmed that she was a habitual user of heroin, cocaine, and Xanax in the months before her near drowning. She was also a heavy drinker.
“One of the sources who saw Brown regularly says she often appeared to be high, slurring her words and seeming incoherent,” the account continued. A source told the magazine that Bobbi had been “in and out of rehab” since Whitney died. She was “distraught” over the upcoming third anniversary of her mother’s death, which only served to “fuel her addiction.”
“How thin she had gotten is an indicator,” a friend told People. “This girl was trying hard, but she didn’t have any support system. She was still dealing with a lot of grief over her mother.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
The anticipation was excruciating. It had seemed like forever since she had signed her name on the Arista contract, and Whitney was itching for the album to finally be released. She wasn’t the only one. A number of company insiders wondered why it was taking so long. But with Davis’s track record, they trusted that he knew what he was doing.
Arista publicist Barbara Shelley was particularly impatient. She had shepherded Whitney on the West Coast leg of the promotional tour, where Whitney was showcased to radio and industry insiders prior to the album’s release. The response was tremendous. But still, there was no sign of the album, and no word of when it would see the light of day. Both Davis and Harvey later rationalized the delay by saying that they wanted to make sure it was perfect. But Shelley revealed that there was a lot of second-guessing going on behind the scenes.
“So much care went into this album that it didn’t seem like it would ever come out,” she recalled. “When the album was completed, Clive was still having second thoughts. He was afraid that there were not enough hits to compete with Whitney’s talents. He finally succumbed to the pressure of this personal decision. Should he keep this girl’s talents under wraps any longer? Or, should he release an album that he knew was good, but was it good enough for Whitney’s talent?”
She revealed that Harvey was calling Davis every day to discuss what Whitney should wear on the album cover and other minutiae.
While most albums have one producer, Davis had assembled a variety of talent to put together the kind of tracks he believed would best suit Whitney’s voice and style.
Narada Michael Walden, who would later coproduce the soundtrack for The Bodyguard, had been laying down tracks on Aretha Franklin’s new album, when he got a call from Gerry Griffith, asking to produce a song for Whitney. Walden had worked with Cissy years before and had first met Whitney when she was thirteen. But he had no idea what she was capable of. Griffith assured him it would be worth his while.
“He told me, ‘You need to make time for her. She is going to be a major artist,’ Walden recalled.
Once he told me that, I knew he was serious. So, I slowed down. When I first heard her open her mouth in New York on the song, I was like, “Yeah. She’s bad.” She was so confident. She came back in to where I was sitting to hear the playback of the song, and she was looking at me. She was real confident. She was looking at me, and I was looking at her. After that, we went out for a slice of pizza. She started talking about how her album was coming along and how she was doing. I had to be really careful that she didn’t think I was hitting on her because she was so beautiful. I was married, but nevertheless, I didn’t want her to think I was hitting on her, so we could become good friends, which we did. She was 20 years old at the time. You could tell that her mother really got her into vocal shape and that she listened to Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, and all the great ones before her. She took something from each of them, but she worked really hard to get her own sound. Her mother really passed the torch on to her. Her mother, Cissy, was a genius.
Finally, the moment was at hand. Whitney was giddy with excitement and also very nervous. On February 14, 1985, Whitney Houston was officially released, though it had been shipped to stores the month before and had already garnered some attention. And although Arista had assumed it would rocket up the charts right out of the box, at first, sales were disappointing. Had Davis lost his magic touch? Was his new find all hype?
By March 30, the album had debuted on the Billboard 200 chart but at an unimpressive 166.
Cissy attributed the slow start to the preponderance of ballads that were meant to be a showcase for Whitney’s unique voice. That, she recalled, may be why the album failed to gain traction at first.
But if the album-buying public were slow to catch on, the critics were bowled over.
Rolling Stone believed the songs themselves were mediocre and “featureless” but described their singer as “one of the most exciting new voices in years . . . her interpretive approach is what sets her apart.” Predicting that the artist is “en route to a big career,” Whitney Houston, the review concluded, “is obviously headed for stardom, and if nothing else, her album is an exciting preview of coming attractions.”
Likewise, the LA Times reviewer was hardly enamored by the track list, but he too was captivated by Whitney’s voice. “Neither the frequently listless arrangements nor the sometimes mediocre material of this debut LP hides the fact that Houston is a singer with enormous power and potential.” The New York Times was impressed by both the album and the singer. “Along with an appealing romantic innocence, she projects the commanding dignity and elegance of someone far more mature.” Finally, the Village Voice savaged the songs themselves as “schlock” but again singled out Whitney’s “sweet, statuesque voice.”
And just when it looked like Whitney’s debut was going to fade away, something happened. First, the single “You Give Good Love” started getting radio play, and slowly but surely the album climbed the charts. By early summer, it had reached number one on the R&B charts. Then, by August, it had clawed its way to the top ten on the Billboard album chart. It was an auspicious de
but for a twenty-one-year-old singer but not quite what Arista had expected, especially after the time and money the company had invested in their young phenom.
Whitney had hit the road to promote the album, but the venues were still relatively small. She received some increased exposure that summer when she toured as the opening act for Jeffrey Osborne, who had written one of the songs on her album.
When the Grammy nominations were announced, Whitney and her record were up for three honors but were conspicuously left out of the important category Best New Artist—a category that had been won over the years by such artists as the Beatles, Carly Simon, Bette Midler, and Natalie Cole, among other future superstars. On the other hand, some past winners had quickly fizzled, such as Bobbie Gentry, singer of the one-hit wonder “Ode to Billy Joe” and Taste of Honey, known only for their disco hit, “Boogie Oogie Oggie.” Because of Whitney’s recordings with Teddy Pendergrass and Jermaine Jackson the year before, it was ruled that she didn’t fit the criteria as a “new” artist. Cissy was mildly annoyed at what she considered a snub, believing her daughter was being “punished” for nothing. But Clive Davis was furious. He wrote a letter of protest to the Academy, claiming that on the two 1984 recordings, “Whitney was simply an unknown vocalist making a ‘cameo’ appearance on just one of eight or nine songs contained in a major artist’s album. She was not even a member of a continuing artistic duo. Whitney was merely a featured vocalist, not the artist, and certainly not the focal point of the song.” However, Michael Greene, chairman of the Academy, was unbending.
“The rule that disqualified Whitney is perfectly clear,” he wrote. “It reads: ‘An artist is not eligible in the best new artist category if the artist had label credit or album credit, even if not as a featured artist, in a previous awards’ year.”
To many observers, it appeared that Davis was simply stirring up controversy for the sake of publicity, especially since he made sure to release the correspondence to the media and penned his own commentary about the snub in Billboard magazine, which referenced some of the many honors that had been rolling in for months.