Landon Brown, Bobby Brown Jr., and Bobby Brown attend BET and Toyota present the premiere screening of ‘The Bobby Brown Story’ at Paramount Theatre on August 29, 2018 in Hollywood, California
Bobby Brown’s 28-year-old son Bobby Brown Jr. has been found dead at his home in Los Angeles, five years after the death of his half-sister and eight years after his stepmother Whitney Houston drowned in a bath.
Police rushed to a ‘medical emergency’ at the home in Encino, California, at 1.50pm on Wednesday.
LAPD spokesman Jeff Lee said they do not believe foul play was involved and additional details on the death were not immediately released.
Bobby Jr. is the second child R&B singer Brown has lost after the death of his daughter with ex-wife Houston, Bobbi Kristina, who was found unconscious in a bathtub in 2015 at the age of 22.
Bobby Kristina’s ‘adopted brother’, Nick Gordon, with whom she had a controversial relationship before her death, also died in January.
Three years before their daughter’s death, Houston had drowned in a bathtub after taking cocaine and Xanax. She and Brown had a tempestuous 15 year marriage that was plagued by drug abuse, violence and infidelity.
Bobby Jr. is one of Brown’s seven children, including the late Bobbi Kristina, Landon, 34, LaPrincia, 30, Cassius, 11, Bodhi, 5, and Hendrix, 4.
LaPrincia is Bobby Jr.’s only full sibling, born to Brown and his on-again, off-again girlfriend Kim Ward.
His brother Landon shared a photo of Bobby Jr. on today Instagram, writing: ‘I love you forever King.’
In a statement to CNN, Brown’s agent said that the singer had ‘no comment’ on the death of his son.
Bobby Jr., who was also a recording artist, had posted a photograph just days ago with his girlfriend Anya, 22.
From back row left: Bobby Brown Jr. is pictured, front left, with the Houston-Brown family in 1999 when he was seven. Next to him is his half-sister La’Princia Brown, behind him is his paternal grandfather Pops Brown. Whitney Houston is shown in the back, with one arm draped around Bobby Brown. His brother Tommy is next to him and clutching a dog in the front is Bobby and Whitney’s only child, tragic Bobbi Kristina, who died in 2015
Bobby Brown Jr. lived inside this gated community in Encino, California. It’s unclear who raised the alarm but he was found dead on Wednesday night
Brown Jr posing in social media pictures in recent weeks
She tweeted today: ‘The heavens gained an angel but I lost my soulmate.’
Bobby Jr. was Brown’s second child with Kim Ward, a childhood friend with whom Brown had a tumultuous 11 year relationship.
Ward gave birth to Bobby Jr. less than a year before Brown and Houston had their daughter Bobbi Kristina in 1993, their only child together.
In a 2006 interview, Ward had complained that Houston never liked Bobby Jr. because of how close together their children with Brown were born.
She told the Boston Magazine that Houston ‘has a problem with little Bobby.’
‘There’ll be times she’ll call me,’ Ward said. ‘She’ll be like, ‘Oh, well, can LaPrincia come down to spend time with Krissy (Bobbi Kristina) while we go to such and such?’ Hello? No! He has another kid here, too.’ Ward said.
Ward’s relationship with Brown was fraught over child support payments before the deaths of Houston and Bobbi Kristina.
In 2007, Brown was sentenced to 30 days in prison for failing to pay $20,000 to Ward for their two children, LaPrincia and Bobby Jr.
He spent three nights in a cell before a radio station paid the debt.
In 2004 and 2005, Brown was also sentenced to jail in Massachusetts for failing to pay child support. In both cases he paid up.
Following his half-sister’s death in 2015, Bobby Jr. reacted furiously to those who started following him on social media.
‘People really don’t give a f**k about you unless you’re relevant,’ he wrote in a since-deleted tweet. ‘And they don’t love you till you’re famous or gone. I don’t want these follows. Your follows ain’t gonna fill the hole in my heart, and y’all gon unfollow me once you stop caring.’
Bobby Jr’s death is the latest tragedy to befall 51-year-old Brown whose marriage to Houston from 1992 to 2007 was plagued by drug abuse, domestic violence and infidelity.
Houston was found dead in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in February 2012.
The 48-year-old had drowned as a result of cocaine use and heart disease, the coroner wrote.
Also in her system were Benadryl, Xanax, cannabis and Flexeril.
Three years later, the couple’s 22-year-old daughter Bobbi Kristina was found unconscious in the bathroom of her home in Georgia.
She died in a hospice six months later following catastrophic brain damage from being submerged in the water.
It was suspected that Bobbi Kristina may have been injured by her ex-boyfriend Nick Gordon during a domestic argument, but he was never charged with anything related to the incident.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office later determined that she died from being immersed in water and drug intoxication that led to pneumonia, however, medical experts were unable to rule whether her death was ‘due to intentional or accidental causes.’
Bobbi was buried two days later next to her legendary mother at Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey.
In late 2016, Gordon was found liable in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the conservator of Bobbi Kristina’s estate, Bedelia Hargrove, and was court-ordered to pay a total of $36 million in the case.
In January 2020, Nick Gordon died from a heroin overdose.
Last year, Brown paid tribute to Bobbi Kristina while touting the foundation launched in honor of her death.
‘Today we recognize the first annual Bobbi Kristina Day – July 26th, 2019. We miss you so much Babygirl,’ he captioned post.
‘Every day I hold you close to my heart,’ Brown began in the message that was illustrated with a picture of Bobbi Kristina and some butterflies.
‘I think about so many of the things you used to do, from a little girl to a beautiful young lady. I just smile! It reminds me of how much I miss my little girl more and more every day. So loved and so missed.’
The former New Edition star then shared about his family starting The Bobbi Kristina Serenity House, a non-profit that offers resources to victims of domestic violence, and how it’s ‘doing great things to help others in need, the way you would have if you were here.’
‘Krissi, on this special day, we honor you, we love you and we shine a light on your memory,’ he concluded.
Tragic family: Bobby Brown Jr. is the second child Bobby Brown has lost. Whitney Houston famously died in 2012. Their daughter, Bobbi Kristina, died three years later
Brown, a Boston native, reached fame with the group New Edition and for his 1988 solo album ‘Don’t be Cruel.’
He starred in his own television show, ‘Being Bobby Brown,’ but the show was cancelled in 2007 after Houston stopped appearing.
Last year, it was reported that Brown had been removed from a JetBlue flight at Los Angeles International Airport for ‘being drunk.’
Brown was allegedly involved in an altercation shortly before takeoff to Boston while the plane was still at the gate.
Everyone was asked to deboard and Brown was pictured speaking with police officers in the terminal.