Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown met at the Soul Train Music Awards in 1989, when both were at the top of the music charts. However, it wasn't exactly love at first sight.
"I and some friends of mine were sitting behind him," Houston told Rolling Stone of their first encounter."I was hugging them, we were laughing, and I kept hitting Bobby in the back of the head … I leaned over and said, 'Bobby, I'm so sorry.' And he turned around and looked at me like, 'Yeah, well just don't let it happen again.' And I was like, 'Oooooh, this guy doesn't like me.' Well, I always get curious when somebody doesn't like me."
Their relationship weathered many ups and downs. According to Biography, Houston turned down Brown's first marriage proposal, but they were eventually married on July 18, 1992. In March 1993, Bobbi Kristina Brown, their only child, was born.
However, in the mid-2000s, news broke of problems in their marriage, including drug use and rumors of infidelity. During the marriage, Brown had multiple run-ins with the law. In 2003, he was accused of striking Houston across the face, however, he was not convicted and denied ever hitting her. Houston also entered rehab on two occasions for her drug abuse.
"I never cheated, I never did none of that stuff," she told Oprah Winfrey in 2009, two years after the pair divorced. "I just did the drugs."
Whitney Houston passed away on February 11, 2012, after accidentally drowning in her bathtub. Their daughter, Bobbi Kristina, passed away in 2015.