Whitney Recording 'A Lot'...

[USA Today Report]

Daddy's home in 'Being Bobby'
By Donna Freydkin, USA TODAY

NEW YORK — Forget his stints behind bars, the tumultuous 12-year marriage to singer Whitney Houston and that attention-grabbing 2003 spiritual trip to Israel.

Bobby Brown wants you to know he's just an average suburban dad who loves his four kids and makes a mean macaroni and cheese from scratch. He's sharing that life with the world in Bravo's series Being Bobby Brown, premiering Thursday (10 p.m. ET/PT).

Brown, 38, decided to make his life public because "so much had been said about me, and I figured, 'Why not?' This is a way to show people that I'm just Bobby. I spend my time raising my kids. I just want people to stop judging me. I take pride in everything I do."

Mostly, says Brown, he's proud of his four kids, daughters Bobbi Kristina, 12 (with Houston, 41), and LaPrincia, 16, and sons Bobby Jr., 14, and Landon, 18, from other relationships. He says he supports his children, emotionally and financially — though he was jailed in March 2004 in Massachusetts for not coming up with $63,500 in child support money but was released after making the payment.

Still, Brown gets a bit peevish at any implication that he doesn't take care of his brood.

"The biggest misconception about me is that I haven't paid child support," he says. "That would be something I wouldn't do! Even being charged with assaulting my wife — we play a lot. It was just a big misunderstanding that got out of hand, and the press took it and ran with it."

Brown is referring to Houston's December 2003 911 call in which she said he struck her in the face; charges were dropped.

"We're two people who love each other and respect each other. I guess you're going to get passion," he says. "As for me ever, ever, ever disrespecting my wife by putting my hand up to her, that's bogus. She would have left me if that was the case. We play a lot, and one night we were playing and I got mine in and ran out the door. I didn't know it hurt her."

When the police called him, he thought it was a practical joke. "It scared me. I was supposed to go to Los Angeles to work, and I didn't even get on my flight. I didn't know it was that serious."

His wife "overreacted," Brown says. "I have no problems apologizing to (her)."

Houston, meanwhile, finished a second stint in rehab in 16 months this April and is "doing wonderful," Brown says. "She looks great. She smells great. Her eyes are sparkling. I can see God in her again. She's in great health."

He calls Houston his best friend. "She's the person I can talk to about all my problems, the person that can get me mad because she knows what buttons to press. We're two powerful entertainers that are in love."

Brown, who won a Grammy for his smash single Every Little Step off his hit 1988 solo album Don't Be Cruel, is hoping to rekindle his music career with a new album slated for a fall release. Houston, too, is making music in the couple's Atlanta-area home studio. She's "recording a lot," Brown says. "She doesn't stop recording."
 

NEWSFILE: 23 JULY 2004