In an outdoor amphitheater in suburban Atlanta, more than 300 well-wishers gathered to pray for Bobbi Kristina Brown at a vigil February 9. Amid the candlelight, Tina and Shayne Brown – the 21-year-old’s aunt and cousin, respectively – found a spotlight. During a TV interview, the pair provided an update on their beloved “Krissi,” who has remained unconscious since she was found unresponsive in her bathtub January 31. “She’s progressing. She’s getting better,” Shayne, Bobby Brown’s nephew, told Entertainment Tonight. Sitting next to his mom, and bearing stitches from where she threw a glass at his head during a February 6 bar brawl, Shayne added that he and his relatives are “in good spirits. Everybody’s talking about the bickering and fighting that’s going on between the family. At this time right now, we’re just … a lot of emotions are going on.”
Including greed. An insider claims that the mother-son duo had asked for thousands of dollars to do the interview. Other Browns also sought benefits. When a reporter approached Krissi’s cousin Jerod for a quote on her condition, he requested a hotel room and private car service before he would even get on the phone. (On February 13, Bobby’s lawyer released a statement asking media to “disregard” Jerod: “He is unable to provide access to Bobbi Kristina or information on her condition. . . . We do not need this sideshow.”) And as Bobbi Kristina – the only child of Bobby, 46, and the late Whitney Houston – fights desperately for her life, her loved ones are fighting for cash, claims a source. With doctors making it clear that Bobbi Kristina’s chances of survival are slim (“It’s dire,” says one source), her relatives are already jockeying for a piece of the multimillion-dollar fortune she inherited from her superstar mom. If Bobbi Kristina dies, Whitney’s estate – which outlets, including Forbes, have placed at upwards of $20 million – will go to her grandmother Cissy Houston, 81, and Whitney’s brothers Michael, 53, and Gary, 57. But an insider says Bobby may try to walk away with some riches: “He’s determined to figure out the legal issues with the money.”
Meanwhile, Bobbi Kristina’s troubled life is being laid bare. In the two-plus weeks since the famous daughter of two former drug addicts was placed in a medically induced coma – and police began investigating the incident – her hidden struggles have become headline news. Ranging from the concerning (she crashed a friend’s Jeep Liberty into another car four days before her hospitalization) to the downright alarming (on January 23, a neighbor reported a violent incident in front of the couple’s Atlanta-area townhouse), the leaks paint a bleak picture of the aspiring singer. Says a source, “In a lot of ways, she’s like her parents. She’s a disturbed girl.”
A Fight for Funds
Whitney’s 2012 drowning death – she was found in a hotel bathtub with drugs in her system – made Bobbi Kristina sole heir and a wealthy woman. The six-time Grammy winner reportedly left her then-18-year-old daughter millions. But she could not cash in immediately. Instead, the documents laid out a timeline: She would receive a portion when she turned 21, an other sum at 25 and the rest at age 30. She also got the use of Whitney’s $1.2 million Atlanta-area townhome. (A Houston source says the terms of the will have changed.) In charge of doling out the funds: Whitney’s sister-in-law Pat, 54, a cotrustee of Whitney’s will and the same woman she entrusted with a preteen Bobbi Kristina for two years in the wake of her messy split from an allegedly abusive Bobby. Pat and Whitney’s brother Gary “took care of (Bobbi Kristina) … while I just tried to get it all together,” Whitney explained to Oprah Winfrey in 2009.
If Bobbi Kristina does not recover, the money she received on her birthday last March would go to her next of kin – her father. “She has no children and Bobby Brown is her only living parent,” Atlanta-based estate and trust attorney Kasey Libby says of the “My Prerogative” singer, worth a reported $2 million himself. If Krissi has not drafted her own will, adds the lawyer, “Bobby should inherit the entirety of her money.” (A Houston source counters that “Bobby isn’t entitled to anything.”) And an insider says the bad boy R&B singer is determined to stake his claim. As he prays at his little girl’s bedside, says a source, “he’s fighting with the Houstons about the money.” At issue for the Houstons, says another source, is that the man some relatives blame for allowing Whitney to slide deeper into her drug addiction could walk away with her hard-earned money. “The family doesn’t want to see Bobby benefit,” explains the source. “As the situation gets more grave, I think people are feeling the pressure. Money is a big point of contention.”
It tops a laundry list of family feuds. An insider says the Browns and the Houstons are also battling over Krissi’s medical care. While the insider says Pat is considering heeding doctors’ advice and letting go of Krissi, Bobby’s not ready. “Bobbi Kristina hasn’t faced any system failures, so he thinks she could come back with a miracle,” says a Brown source. “As her father, he is the one with the power to take her off life support.” After years of strain – a source says the duo were barely speaking – the father of five isn’t prepared to make that call, says the source: “Their last interaction is not the last one he wants to have with his daughter.” Unable to see eye to eye, says the source, “Pat and Bobby got into a fight. They hate each other.”
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SOURCE: Boston Herald
Sarah Grossbart
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