Whitney bids adieu to Bobby

After traveling the bumpy road, Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown’s much talked about wedlock has reached the terminal stage.

The rocky marriage has gone through many storms- Drug addictions, Brown’s numerous arrests and Whitney’s domestic abuse; all these have been withstanded in the 14 year old relationship, which outsiders have often labeled as ‘mis-matched’.

Whitney’s publicist Nancy Seltzer corroborated the divorce filed by the iconic American Pop singer. She chose to be tight-lipped and did not reveal where or when Houston filed the divorce papers.

Phaedra Parks, an entertainment lawyer in Atlanta who represents Brown, confirmed the separation too and said that it’s not a divorce or a petition, but a legal separation.

Houston wants to have the custody of their 13 year old daughter, Bobbi Kristina, and Brown be allowed the visitation rights. As far as the property is concerned, Houston gives it the second position and wants those rights to be determined later.

Whitney had it all; The looks, the heritage and the elemental voice. She was something that simply happened to audiences, whether they took notice or not, like the weather- though if Whitney was the weather, it was always very, very sunny.

Whitney was so blindingly, scorchingly successful in the 1980s and early 1990s, that she was pop music. She was the mainstream air that all breathed, or at least the air that MTV, car and workplace radios conducted into everyone’s heads. Her debut album went double-platinum overnight. She then collected seven consecutive US number ones, outstripping the Beatles.

Her first four albums amassed global sales in excess of 86 million copies.

Houston continued her success in the 1990s with the release of several films and their corresponding soundtrack albums, the most popular of which was ‘The Bodyguard’ (1992), which became one of the best-selling albums of all time and produced her hit signature song ‘I Will Always Love You’.

Her record sales during the next decade were modest, and her personal life became the subject of controversy because of allegations of drug abuse.

Houston has sold over 120 million albums and 50 million singles, and she is one of the best selling females ever. She has won twenty-one American Music Awards, and six Grammy Awards.

Houston walked the aisle with Bobby Brown, an American Grammy-winning R&B singer and dancer, in 1992.

Brown began his career with the popular boy band New Edition in 1980 and was later ousted from the group due to behavioral problems. He embarked on a solo career in the late 1980s and had a string of Top 10 Billboard hits.

The two seemed to be a mis-match for most of the people and their relationship has been permanent fodder for yellow journalism. But for 14 years, Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown publicly professed their love for one another.

Enduring hearsays and speculations, their marriage was back on track a few years ago after they had decided to split. Their life was put on display last year with Brown's reality series, ‘Being Bobby Brown’ on Bravo.

Earlier this year, the surmisals of a possible split escalated when Brown’s sister told the media that Houston was addicted to crack. She also supplied photos of what she said was Houston's bathroom, littered with garbage and evidence of drug use.

Brown had been arrested a number of times, which has wounded his public image too. In 1995, Brown was arrested after a brawl in a Disney World nightclub. Several months later, Brown was charged with battery in Los Angeles after allegedly kicking a hotel security guard.

The same year, Brown checked himself into the Betty Ford Clinic to battle drug and alcohol problems. However, in August 1996, he wrecked Houston's leased Porsche while speeding in Florida; reportedly, his blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit.

In 1997, Brown was accused of spousal abuse when Houston suffered a cut on her cheek during a yachting trip, although both Brown and Houston denied the reports.

In the summer of 1998, Brown was arrested for sexual battery stemming from an alleged incident in the Beverly Hills Hotel, although no charges were filed for lack of evidence.

He served five days in a Florida jail stemming from his drunk-driving incident, and after spending time in rehabilitation center, he was arrested again for allegedly having shown up at the jail drunk. Brown reportedly violated his probation by testing positive for cocaine several times; while those charges were dropped, he was sentenced to 75 days in jail for refusing to take another drug test in early 2000.

It is still unclear which one of the two was more troubled as Houston was checked into a drug rehabilitation program too in 2004 and again in 2005.

As of now, Houston is executive producing ‘The Cheetah Girls’ sequel ‘The Cheetah Girls 2’: ‘When In Spain’. She is also recording a new album.