Bobby Brown wants you to get to know who he is now

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

Bobby Brown knows there are a ton of memes that poke fun at his relationship with his former wife Whitney Houston, but he’s not interested in seeing them.

“I really don’t look at all of the memes,” he told CNN. “I try to stay away from things that might bother me.”

Instead, Brown is focusing on healing.

The former “bad boy of R&B” is sober, in therapy and excited to share his life story.

The A&E documentary “Biography: Bobby Brown” is set to air over two days, starting on Memorial Day with his docuseries “Bobby Brown: Every Little Step” debuting the next day.

The series will focus on his family life with wife Alicia Etheredge-Brown and their children, Cassius, 12, Bodhi, 6, and Hendrix, 5.

Brown said he has no trepidation about opening up his home and life to the cameras.

“How we are doing as a family is great and I want people to see that,” he said. “Families still do go through ups and downs, but they’re always happy times that you should be proud of.”

The singer has had his share of unhappy times.

He has shared he was molested as a child by a priest before he became a young star as a member of the boy band New Edition.

His later life included a high-profile struggle with substance abuse and a string of arrests.

There was also the tumultuous marriage to Houston, which ended in 2007 after more that 14 years.

Her death in 2012 was followed by the death of their only child, Bobbi Kristina, in 2015 and Brown’s son Bobby Brown Jr. in 2020.

The elder Brown says he has coped by unpacking it all in therapy.

“Therapy is being able to talk about things that I might not normally talk about and just to get all of the cob webs out and give the people what I think I need to give them which is all of Bobby,” he said.

He’s not even bothered, he said, by the fact that so many have focused more on his tragedies than his triumphs because “There’s been so many tragedies that it’s hard to focus on what I did correct.”

He does want the world to know that he and Houston loved each other tremendously, that he is proud of all his children, and that he believes he’s now a better husband and father because of all he’s been through.

Brown said he’s also making new music, both as a solo artist and a member of New Edition, the group he broke with several times during his dark days but has since reunited with for a recent successful tour.

His message for people who may have counted him out?

“Don’t look away,” he said. “I still got more to do.”

The-CNN-Wire
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