The R&B singer vividly opened up to say that he’s "very much clean and sober from narcotics," and tells Lauer about the last time he saw Whitney Houston and how he reacted when he found out about her death.
The 54-year-old host confronted Brown about the public’s speculation that he is the reason the late singer’s life took a turn for the worse, and he responds, “It makes me feel terrible.”
“If anyone ever knew us, if anybody ever spent time around us instead of time looking through the bubble, they would know how we felt about each other,” he added. “They would know how happy we were together.”
Lauer asked Brown about the last time he saw Houston, which was about a week before she died, and he said, “she had this glow about her that was just, you know, incredible. I'm saying to myself, you know, 'She must be ... she must be doing really well,' because she looked really well."
Adding that he thought she was in a “good place.” The two were married for 15 years and he claims that he was not the one who introduced her to narcotics, saying, "I didn't get high [on narcotics] before I met Whitney," Brown said. "I smoked weed, I drank the beer, but no, I wasn't the one that got Whitney on drugs at all."
He added that it was painful to see her suffering and eventually lose her life as a result of the drug use.
"I was hurt. I was hurt ... because, you know, me being off of narcotics for the last seven years, I felt that she was, you know, I didn’t know she was struggling with it still. But at the same time, you know, listen, it's a hard fight. It's a hard fight to, you know, maintain sobriety that way."
The 43-year-old performer said that based on the last time he saw his ex-wife, it had to be the result of one day of cocaine use, and not a long term effect. "It had to be that one, because that's all it takes," Brown said. "One hit, you know ... it could definitely take your life away from you. And, unfortunately, that was it."
The interview is set to air Wednesday on NBC’s “Today.”
