..but had married Arsenio instead?

Remember how he used to worship her on his show?
Would she be a crack-head today? Would Arsenio still be on TV?

She'd be clean!

He used to worship Eddie Murphy a lot more though. She would probably still get on crack because if she came home and caught the two of them in bed together, it would drive her to it.

she would still be a coke head.....

she was doing drugs before Bobby.

i still Bobby and Whitney met cause they had the same dealer.

She would be doing coke instead of crack...

PurpleJedi said:

i wish she had married michael jackson. i can see that working

"Michael! wheres my sunglasses!? no,the beige ones!"

"im wearing them today "

" "

Christopher said:

Cheek said:

Christopher said:

Cheek said:

Christopher said:

she would be a lesbo coke head instead of a losers wife crack head...

althom said:

She'd be cleaner! She might be on coke but it might be less obvious. Bobby has definately took a toll of her career (and frankly, continues to do so....is "Whitney 20" going to have to be retitled "Whitney 21...or whenver she gets to it...).

VinnyM27 said:

Bobby isn't in control of that relationship...Whitney runs it.

She'd be hooked up with another addictive personality. Its not about Bobby but Whitney's own addiction.

If she'd never married Bobby, she would be clean (although I think she would be a hevy-drinker), at least she'll be able to go into the studio every year and record an awesome album that wouldn't be so damn crappy...

She may have stayed off the hard drugs had she not gotten with Bobby B. I think he turned her on to them.

Rhondab said:

Watching that show for five mintues tells you who is in control and it certainly isn't Whitney! She probably can't even control her bowel movements at this point!

It is very sad. Hard drugs is scary. Hope they will both get out this shit.

i believe whtiney did drugs before bobby and it would have continued until she hit rock bottom like most 80's stars.

I am not a Whitney follower, so I haven't done any type of research as to her lifestyle pre-Bobby. However, I posed the question because she comes from a religious family and (theoretically) those basic fundamental beliefs should have kept her grounded as she faced the perils of superstardom.

So...along comes Bobby. Was he her downfall? Or had she already fallen?

THAT is the question.

again, Bobby did not and i repeat did not turn Whitney on to hard drugs, she was already turned on to them before she even met him...if anything she turned HIM on to hard drugs...

from 1994 essence article

It must be love! - Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston - Interview - Cover Story
Essence, Feb, 1994 by Joy Duckett Cain

Save a personal copy of this article and quickly find it again with Furl.net. It's free! Save it.
Whitney Houston is sitting at the kitchen counter in her home in Mendham Township, New Jersey with a plate of spaghetti and meatballs in front of her and her 8-month-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina--B.K. for short--on her lap. To her right is an empty chair and a place setting. Nearby, at the stove, Whitney's husband, Bobby Brown, heaps massive quantities of spaghetti onto his plate. He spreads the sauce and sausages and meatballs on top, thick and heavy. He retrieves a brew from the refrigerator. And then Bobby does that peculiar twentieth-century Man Thing: He takes his plate, bypasses the empty place setting next to his wife, strolls into the living room and plops down in front of the television--where he proceeds to play remote-control roulette.

Welcome to a scene from a marriage. Actually, it's a scene that makes me smile in recognition--and relief. For the past 90 minutes Whitney, Bobby and I have talked about their relationship, the media, their daughter and Bobby's other children. Over and over again, Whitney and Bobby say that they're just like any other married couple. But they act like two high-schoolers with a bad case of the hots for each other. They giggle, they flirt, they tease--at one point, Bobby even gives Whitney a piggyback ride up the stairs.

Are they for real? The vibes say yes. Still, Bobby stroking Whitney's bare foot? I don't know. Maybe I'm hanging with the wrong crowd, but the married folks I know just don't act like that. Particularly after they've recently had a baby.

So when Bobby does his TV Man Thing, the cynic in me is appeased. Talent, wealth, fame and having the hots for each other mean nothing in the face of a good horror movie. This is a marriage I can relate to.

And yes, it seems, they are for real. "You see him onstage, you see him on the video. You see me onstage, you see me on the video. But you don't see the people here in this house," Houston says of the perception the public has of them. "You don't see us sitting back watching TV, watching a movie or something, drinking a beer, just coolin' out. You know--talking to each other, being real. But if you really think about it you've got to realize that we've got to get up and brush our teeth. We've got to wash our behinds. There is relativity here. "

The first time I interviewed Houston was in 1990. As she walked me to the door at the end of our conversation, she mentioned something about dating Bobby Brown. I arched my eyebrow, in part at the apparent incongruity of a love match between the balladeer and the Bobby and in part because of their six-year age difference. I asked her if he wasn't a bit young for her. Whitney smiled slyly. "Yeah," she said, "but girl . . ."

Now, as I watch Mr. and Mrs. Bobby Brown sipping Lowenbraus, smoking Newports and finishing each other's sentences, I witness their connection. We talk in a lounge area beyond their game room, and the atmosphere is casual. Whitney, barefoot, is dressed in black stretch pants and a plain beige, blue and brown striped top; Bobby is decked out in white sweatpants, a white and blue "Humpin' Around" T-shirt and black sneakers. Marilyn, the cat, strolls by to check up on them every few minutes. Laughter comes easily. Like when Bobby is asked what it was about Whitney that made him want to marry her.

"I couldn't find anything wrong with her that made me not want to marry her," he says.

Whitney cracks tip.

"Honestly, I couldn't," Bobby continues. "I hate talking about her in front of her. There's not just one thing I can point my finger at and say this is what I like about her.' It's her. That's what made me love her, and that's what made me want to marry her. I'm just glad she said yes.

When Whitney, said yes, the stage was set for the union of two of the music industry's biggest successes. Since her recording debut in 1985, Houston has had worldwide album and singles sales totaling 85 million copies. The Bodyguard, in which she made her acting debut with Kevin Costner, grossed $411 million worldwide, while the sound track sold 24 million copies and generated three Top Ten hits. Last October, in compiling its list of "The 101 Most Influential in Entertainment Today," Entertainment Weekly ranked Houston No. 71 -- ahead of director Martin Scorcese, actor Sylvester Stallone and supersportsman Michael Jordan. "America loves that voice," the magazine declared about Houston. "Even when it reflects hollow dialogue or hopeless lyrics."

Bobby, meanwhile, has also proven that he's no speck in the musical firmament, either. After forming New Edition in the early 1980's--a group heralded by some as the second coming of the Jackson 5--Brown, like Michael before him, eventually bolted the confines of groupdom. In 1986 Brown struck out on his own. Two years later he came into his own with the release of his trend-setting Don't Be Cruel album, which yielded four Top Ten hits--including the anthemic "My Prerogative"--and sold 8 million copies. (His long-awaited 1992 follow-up, Bobby, sold more than 2 million). That album was among the first to blend hip-hop energy with traditional R & B, birthing the genre called New Jack Swing and crowning Brown its King.

So when Whitney Elizabeth Houston and Bobby Baresford Brown said "I do" on July 18, 1992, on the grounds of Whitney's home in New Jersey (about 800 of their nearest and dearest were invited to the reception), the rumor mill went on overtime. It hasn't let up. The speculation is that (1) Bobby has cheated/is cheating/will sometime in the future cheat on Whitney--big-time; (2) Whitney has slipped/is slipping/or will sometime in the future slip into an obsessive frenzy in an effort to keep tabs on her wandering spouse; (3) Theirs is a marriage of convenience, devised to boost Bobby's overall celebrity quotient and to improve Whitney's relationship with the hip-hop set; (4) Theirs is a marriage of convenience, devised to cover up the fact that Whitney--despite evidence to the contrary--is a lesbian; or (5) all of the above.

Not surprisingly, Whitney and Bobby claim the correct answer is (6) None of the above. And when the subject of their marriage being possibly a coverup, or a publicity stunt, is oh-so-tactfully broached, Whitney responds forcefully.

"This ain't about publicity," she says with a trace of anger. "I wouldn't do it if it were about publicity. I don't want to spend the rest of my life with somebody I thought was just gonna give me publicity. I've got enough of that on my own. And so does he. You don't have a baby based on that madness. People don't live like that. Especially Black people who were raised in families with morals and standards and integrity. But the press isn't gonna sell a paper if they're saying |Well, Whitney and Bobby are doing great!'" "Who's gonna pay to read that?" Bobby asks. "If Bobby and Whitney are supposedly having problems, that sells. If she took . . . how many diet pills did you take again? [Whitney rolls her eyes.] You have to understand what the press and this business are all about," Bobby adds. "We know what our love is about, and how strong we are as a family."

"That's what we hold on to," Whitney says. "But nobody likes to be picked on. Nobody."

Brown's past exploits, however, make him an easy target. Although he has steadfastly denied any involvement with drugs, rumors of an alleged habit have lingered around him like a bad odor.

It's his premarital liaisons, however, that have really set tongues wagging. Prior to marrying Whitney, Bobby acknowledges that he fathered three children--Landon, now 7, LaPrincia, 4, and Robert, 2 1/2--by two different women. Given the fact that Bobby doesn't turn 25 until this month (Whitney is 30), he has obviously been getting busy for quite a while.

Although Brown's children live with their respective mothers, the couple say that they see them often. When asked how she feels about being a stepmother, Whitney becomes emphatic. "I don't deal with that stepmom madness," she says. "I tell them, |You've got a mother. There are no more steps to take. Step nothing.' I'm their friend. I tell them that I love them and they can love me and we can talk and be friends. That's our relationship."

As for the relationship they have, what it's about, Whitney and Bobby agree, is simply trying to make it--as a woman and a man, as wife and husband, as two individuals who truly want to spend their lives together.

And, yes, Whitney trusts her husband. "I don't worry. I know my husband respects me," she says. "My husband doesn't carry himself when he walks into a room like |Okay, let me see who I can mack tonight.' He's a married man. So it's not about that."

Bobby's "humpin' around" days, he agrees, are over--forever. "When I go out, I can't look at another female in that sense, because I don't feel that anymore. When you love somebody, you love then with everything that you have. Yes, I still hang out. But it's all about beer and hip-hop. So I hope my wife doesn't worry about it. But I don't worry about that, either-because I know me."

Both Whitney and Bobby say that the birth of Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown has drastically changed their lives--and their love.

"When you're building a building, you have to have something strong to hold the building up," Bobby says. "Bobbi Kris is the cement that holds our relationship together. When we're going through changes, when we're arguing or whatever, all it takes is for Bobbi Kristina to go waaaahhhhh. And we crack up," Bobby says. It also helps them put things in perspective. They say they'd like to have three kids together; those three, combined with Bobby's three, says Whitney, will be enough.

Bobby and Whitney first met at the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards. About four months later, fate threw them together again at a BeBe and CeCe Winans concert. After the performance, the couple joined BeBe, CeCe and a group of friends for breakfast. "That's when we first gave each other the googly eyes," Bobby says with a smile. Bobby asked Whitney to go on a date the next evening, and she accepted. Whitney, in turn, invited Bobby to her twenty-sixth birthday party. That's when the harmonizing really began.

"He's nothing like everybody says be is--that's what tripped me out," Whitney says before launching into some of the raps she'd heard about Bobby in the past. "People said, |Bobby's so this, Bobby's so that, Bobby's so mean, Bobby's got an attitude--that "My Prerogative" syndrome.' But he came to my party and the thing that turned me on was that he was such a gentleman. He didn't try to impress me, he didn't try to put on airs, he didn't seem like he was afraid of me--like most men. Before I met my husband, I always got that how-can-I-show-her-that-I'm-worthy-to-be-with-her? attitude. When I met Bobby, it was simple. Bobby knew what I needed was love."

To quote a lyric from their duet on Brown's recent album, Bobby and Whitney have "something in common." They both grew up in close-knit two-parent families. Whitney and her two brothers were raised in East Orange, New Jersey; Bobby and his two brothers and four sisters were raised in Boston. Each has a Baptist background. From there the strong similarity ends. Bobby alludes to "getting on the wrong track," to getting arrested but not convicted, and to the urban madness of his youth. "In order to survive where I grew up, you had to fight, you had to be able to steal," he explains. "Yes, I was a roughneck. I still am."

It's hard--but not impossible--to picture Brown in that light as he sits on the floor, speaking softly and playing with the cat. Whitney stays she fell in love with this side of him. "Bobby's got a good heart," she says, "and a good soul. We work hard at our relationship. We do. Because it's easy to lose that romance, that passion you once had."

"And that's when you start running off," Bobby adds, "trying to find it again."

It's Bobby's romantic side that Whitney treasures. "Bobby will take my hand and put it on his face--to me that's romantic," Whitney says. "Or when I wake up in the morning and I'm like this [she crosses her eves and makes a face], he'll say, |I love you--you're so beautiful!'" Whitney chuckles. "I could be looking real crazy--and he'll go, |I love your eves. I love you. You're just beautiful to me.'"

Although Brown threw a surprise birthday bash for his wife on a yacht in the Mediterranean when Houston performed in Monte Carlo last year, Whitney says that the most romantic evening she has spent with Bobby occurred at home. On their first wedding anniversary, Whitney set up a small table in their yard, covered it with their wedding tablecloth and lit some candles. The couple ate dinner--and wedding cake--and slow-danced under the stars.

"I didn't think that I would ever get married," Bobby says. "But I found a woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, no matter what. And . . ."

"Here we are," says Whitney.

"Yeah, baby," Bobby echoes. "Here we are. "

COPYRIGHT 1994 Essence Communications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

PurpleJedi said:

If I'm not mistaken Whitney dated Daryl Strawberry. We all know of his issues with substance abuse. I honestly believe she was using before bobby. In 1992 their careers were doing well. I think Bobby's downfall began when his career began to wane in the mid 90's. The trouble he had been in prior to Whitney were..well at least I don't think they were drug related.

But Whitney they say was ALWAYs GHETTO. She shouldn't have Gotten deeply into DRUGS. Bobby Seems like a COOl Family Type. I don't think they gotta TRY to be 20 something to be COOL. Why is she so Nasty about STUFF? Doesn't like Photos,Talking. Worst thing he said to her was SHE LOOKS LIKE HER MOTHER and You KNOW HER MOTHER LOOKS BETTER!

Not this again. Iam glad some people realize that odds are it wern't all bobby's doing.

I think whitney made bobby lazy.

I hadn't thought about that but, come to think of it, he was jamming before he got with her ass. She has that effect on people though. When people are influenced by her long enough, they lose all sense of their own rhythm. Hell, she could take the funk out of George Clinton. I read Prince hung out with her at one time. That must have been when he made songs like "Do U Lie" and "Venus De Milo".

vainandy said:

Yeah I remember teddy riley saying bobby was a real hard worker in the studio. Then after 1992's "bobby" album, he just virtually stopped. He married whitney in 1991 I think? It was not like "bobby" was a commercial bomb. He did something called "b brown posse" in 1993, after that, he just stopped.....

Heck he even worked with glenn medeiros and that was good. Both on "lovely little lady" and of course, "she ain't worth it". I still never understand why bobby wanted to work with glenn? Maybe bobby was a big fan? I cant really see that though

I agree with you? When Whitney married Bobby her career status went down hill slowly but surely. Rumors were starting to come to the surface about her drug use. And Bobby he always been "buckwild". Whiteney would not have wnt down hill with Arsenio I believe.