Celebrity Celebrity Deaths Remembering Bobbi Kristina Brown's Life in Photos Nine years after her tragic death, we look back at her life – in and out of the spotlight By Kate Hogan Kate Hogan Kate Hogan is Director of Digital Specials and Features at PEOPLE, as well as the editor of Stories to Make You Smile. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2008. People Editorial Guidelines Updated on July 26, 2024 11:01AM EDT Whitney Houston, Bobbi Kristina Brown and Bobby Brown in 1994. Photo: Lawrence Schwartzwald/Sygma/Getty The only child of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, Bobbi Kristina Brown was born on March 4, 1993. Growing up in the spotlight, despite her parents' best attempts to shelter her, brought its ups and downs for the young woman, who died at 22 years old on July 26, 2015, six months after she was found unresponsive in her home. Her cause of death was from a combination of drowning and drug intoxication. Here, nine years after her tragic death, look back on her short life in photos. 01 of 08 Growing Up Bobbi Kristina Whitney Houston and Bobbi Kristina Brown in 1993. Rex USA Bobbi Kristina Brown was no stranger to fame. And though her home life was often rocky – her parents messily divorced in 2007 – her mother worked hard to keep her daughter's life her top priority. "She supports me, she loves me, she gives me good mommy hugs," Bobbi told Access Hollywood in 2011. 02 of 08 Family Time Bobby Brown, Bobbi Kristina Brown and Whitney Houston. Lee Celano/WireImage Though her parents tried to keep her life as private as possible, save for brief appearances on the family reality show Being Bobby Brown, Bobbi Kristina still enjoyed the occasional perk, like a trip to Anaheim, California's Disneyland with Mom and Dad in 2004 for the premiere of The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. "My daughter is my greatest inspiration," Whitney said in one of her final interviews. "My greatest, my greatest." 03 of 08 Travel Companions Whitney Houston and Bobbi Kristina Brown in 2007. Richard Young/StarTraks At 14, a smiling Bobbi Kristina joined her mom for a surprise appearance at London's Fashion Rocks 2007. She's "my reason to be" the singer had previously said of her daughter. 04 of 08 Sweet 16 Whitney Houston and Bobbi Kristina Brown in 2009. INF The Houston girls – Bobbi Kristina was then 16 – made a spirited arrival in mom's hometown of Newark, New Jersey, in 2009. "She's real together," the teen's half-brother Landon Brown told PEOPLE at the time. "She's calm, down-to-earth and sensitive." 05 of 08 A Tight Bond Whitney Houston and Bobbi Kristina Brown. Jackson Lee/Splash News Online "I want her to count on me to try to understand what she's going through," Whitney told InStyle of Bobbi Kristina, who was pictured in the National Enquirer allegedly snorting a white powder shortly before turning 18 (she denied any drug use). "No damnation, no condemnation, nothing that's going to make her feel like she can't come to me." 06 of 08 Mom & Me Whitney Houston and Bobbi Kristina Brown. BroadImage One year before her mother's death, Bobbi Kristina joined her on an outing in Beverly Hills. Whitney's 2012 passing hit the teen hard. The 18-year-old was hospitalized, suffering from a breakdown, after her mother's body was found in her Beverly Hills hotel room. She put on a brave face for the funeral and memorial services in the days that followed. 07 of 08 Too Much to Handle? Jordin Sparks, Nick Gordon and Bobbi Kristina Brown in 2012. Eric Charbonneau/WireImage Whitney's death reset the spotlight on Bobbi Kristina, though her family attempted to shelter her. She eventually went on to join (and subsequently leave) a Tyler Perry series, appear at the Billboard Music Awards and talk to Oprah. "She's always with me," she told the talk show host of her mom. "I can always feel her with me." In August of 2012, she attended the premiere of her mom's final project, the movie Sparkle. 08 of 08 Life at Last Nick Gordon and Bobbi Kristina Brown in 2012. Christopher Polk/WireImage Life had seemed happily settled and quiet for Bobbi Kristina, who reportedly married longtime family friend Nick Gordon (their union has was later denied by a lawyer for Brown's father) and stayed under the watchful eye of her grandmother Cissy. However, rumors were bubbling again about drug use and her weight loss, and a family friend told PEOPLE she wasn't speaking to her dad. On Jan. 31, 2015, she was found unresponsive in the Georgia home she shared with Gordon, discovered unconscious in a bathtub – just as her mother had died. She died in hospice on July 26, 2015. On Jan. 1, 2020, Gordon died of a drug overdose at home in Florida. He was 30 years old. Close