Bobby Brown asks for privacy as daughter remains in hospital

[February 02, 2015]  (Reuters) - Singer Bobby Brown on Sunday asked for privacy regarding his and his late wife Whitney Houston's daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, who according to police was found unresponsive in a bathtub at her Georgia home before she was revived at a hospital.

The incident comes nearly three years after Houston, a superstar who battled substance abuse, drowned in a bathtub in Beverly Hills, California, in February 2012. Authorities have said cocaine use and heart disease contributed to her death.

Brown, 21, was found on Saturday in the bathtub at her suburban Atlanta home by her husband Nick Gordon and a friend, the Roswell Police Department said. Gordon started CPR and police continued life-saving measures until an ambulance arrived and took her to the hospital.

“Privacy is requested in this matter. Please allow for my family to deal with this matter and give my daughter the love and support she needs at this time,” said Bobby Brown in a statement issued by his lawyer Christopher Brown.

Brown was taken to North Fulton Hospital in Roswell, a suburb north of Atlanta, police said.

Doctors put her in a medically induced coma, according to CNN and other media, all of whom quoted a single source close the family, but the hospital would not confirm those reports or give any updates on her condition.

In January 2014, Brown married Gordon, who was also raised but never adopted by Houston, one of the best-selling recording artists of all time.

Houston, whose dozens of hit songs include "How Will I Know" and "I Will Always Love You," was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston and a cousin of pop singer Dionne Warwick.

Bobbi Kristina Brown's father, Bobby Brown, is a Grammy Award winner who started his career as frontman for the R&B group New Edition.

Both of Bobbi Kristina's parents struggled with substance abuse, and Houston described their 15-year marriage, which ended in 2007, as drug- and alcohol-fueled. Bobby Brown was sentenced to 55 days in jail in 2013 after admitting to driving drunk in 2012.

Bobbi Kristina Brown was hospitalized twice with anxiety after her mother's death.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Eric Walsh)

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