this is "nightline." tonight, a major milestone in american history. hillary clinton, the first woman to clinch a major party nomination, telling us tonight it's not just about her. >> what this moment means to you? >> the fierce pace face off ahead for the highest office in the land. and the career hit a high note with that song from "the bodyguard" but her life took her down a dark path. tonight, bobby brown talking about the marriage to the drug use and how it all came crushing down. but first the "nightline" 5. the "nightline" 5.

♪ ♪ good evening, thanks for joining us. it is a landmark political moment, a first for women in this country with hillary clinton officially clinching her party's nomination in the race for the white house. >> thanks to you we've reached a milestone. [ applause ] the first time in our nation's

history that a woman will be a major party's nominee -- [ applause ] >> we'll have a full political round up in a moment but first we're learning more about the dark and final days of legendary superstar, whitney houston. her ex-husband bobby brown revealing intimate details, of the couple's turbulent marriage, including their drug abuse and brown is pointing fingers about the tragic loss of his daughter, bobby christina. robin roberts has the exclusive conversation. ♪ and i >> reporter: it was that song and the movie "the bodyguard" that propelled whitney houston from super star singer to bona fide hollywood movie star. but in the years after, whitney battled addiction. the public witnessing her erratic behavior on that reality show. >> lord, i just want to be a real person.

>> reporter: and that amazing voice not what it once was. at the center of it all, bobby brown, father to her only daughter, bobbi kristina. who tragically passed away three years after her famous mother. tonight, bobby brown speaking out about the women he loved and lost. >> i still loved her. >> reporter: bobby brown and whitney houston were a seemingly unlikely pair. ♪ i want to dance with somebody ♪ >> reporter: she was a reigning pop princess girl next door. ♪ it's my puraugative and he was the bad boy of r & b. >> when you find love, you find it. it finds you, i should say. between me and her, it was so instant. we were so much like each other. that it made sense. >> reporter: they married in 1992. so, you broke tradition a little

bit and saw her before the wedding. >> that was the first time i had actually saw her do drugs. >> reporter: cocaine? >> yes, ma'am. >> reporter: he says in his book "every little step" he found his bride to be hunched over a bureau snorting a line of coke. and she offered him a hit but he didn't indulge at that moment. >> the drugs wasn't her. she did drugs but drugs didn't do her. she knew how to handle herself. it only made me love and want to protect her more. >> reporter: people said to me the one thing they heard over and over was that you were the one that led whitney to heavy drug use. that you were the one. >> it wasn't me that started her.

i take my part and i take it hard for me even being a part of it but we all have our own minds. >> reporter: in public the young couple glowed with promise that "bodyguard" movie premier. and more good news. and in march 1993, bobby and whitney welcomed their precious baby girl, bobbi kristina brown into the spotlight. but their happy home life wasn't all it seemedtop bobby brown had multiple arrests ranging from marijuana possession to drunk driving and various parole violations. but whitney stood by her man, even recording a duet. ♪ we have something in common they also shared escalated drug use. bobby says they would lock themselves in one wing of the house getting high while daughter, bobby christina was

cared for by nannies. >> reporter: did you ever do it in front of her? >> never. never. i always made it a point to not let her see me or my wife in that type of situation. i mean, it's hard when you're doing it every day. >> reporter: but the world was beginning to take notice. >> at a certain point when you're using drugs you don't know that the outside people that are seeing you. >> reporter: people remember vividly my colleague and friend, dianne sawyer, crack is whack. >> crack is cheap. i make too much money to ever smoke crack. let's get that straight. okay. we don't do crack. crack is whack. >> reporter: people cannot let that go. >> dianne sawyer, love her, love her, love her. just bad timing.

we both needed to get away from what we were doing. it was no reason for her to be on television at that time. >> reporter: but she didn't get away from the cameras. the opposite in fact. she started appearing on her husband's reality show "being bobby brown" along with their daughter, bobbi kristina, exposing her to the harsh glare of the spotlight. >> reporter: you said you felt as parents you and whitney failed her? >> we could have been better. at such a young age for us to have any and everything we wanted was a blessing and a curse. >> reporter: a curse because money for drugs was never a problem for the couple. in his book, bobby browne admits to abusing cocaine, marijuana, and heroin, in addition to alcohol. when was the drug use at its height with you and whitney? >> the last few years of our marriage, it was terrible. both of us trying to be clean and one of us trying to be clean

and the other one don't want to be clean and it's a big struggle. >> reporter: they had tried on and off to be sober but he says whitney wouldn't stop using and that in 2006, that's what ultimately led to the end of their 14 years of marriage. >> she just wasn't ready to go that direction. >> reporter: newly divorced, whitney houston was in search of a comeback when she appeared on "good morning america" in 2009. it was her first televised performance in seven years. what has it meant for you to be back on stage? >> i'm overwhelmed, the love, the support. a new grown up bobbi kristina would make a rare public appearance singing with her mother but the celebration would not last. >> breaking news tonight, the death of singing star, whitney houston at the age of 48.

saturday froong afternoon, february 11th, 2012, whitney houston is found partially submerged in a bath tub of her home pp >> whitney houston was pronounced dead. >> reporter: according to the autopsy report, cocaine use contributed to her accidental drowning. in the aftermath of her death, bobby brown says the relationship with his daughter already strained worsened. the brown family also believed bobbi kristina was being manipulated by another person, nick gordon. gordon was rumored to be whitney's adopted sin. bobby christina called him her brother. after whitney's death, the couple claimed to be much more. >> i'm married and we're fine. we're really, really very happy. he is my backbone. >> reporter: there have been no legal documents to prove that the couple ever married. in 2014, bobby and his daughter

had just started to reconcile and met on father's day for an emotional reunion. you hadn't seen each other in a while because you were a bit estranged. you hugged each other in the restaurant and it was like old times. >> that was a special day. >> >> i love the daddy and me moment. it's a beautiful thing. >> thank you. >> reporter: bobby says things were going so well that bobbi kristina decided to move to los angeles to be closer to him but that move would never happen. on january 31st, 2015, just two days, he says, before his daughter was to head to l.a. she was found lifeless in a bath tub at her georgia home pp >> she was rushed to hospital yesterday. >> painfully reminiscent of her mother's death. >> reporter: they labelled her accident a mystery. but bobby had his suspicions. >> it is not a mystery to me. i know exactly what happened to my daughter. the same thing that happened to

my daughter is what happened to whitney. there's only one person that was around both occasions. >> reporter: you won't say his name. nick gordon is who you're referring to. >> i won't say his name. >> reporter: for six months bobbi kristina lay in a coma. sadly she passed away on july 26th, 2015. >> the last thing i told her, i said let go. i said it's okay. you can go with your mom. daddy will be all right. >> reporter: her official cause of death was low bar pneumonia. due to drowning and a toxic cocktail of drugs in her system. she was buried along side her mother. >> if i had those two days back, i would have went and got her. >> reporter: what two days? >> the two days before what happened to my daughter. she was to come out here to los angeles with me.

if i can get those two days back -- my daughter would be here. all i want is those two days back. >> reporter: although no criminal charges have been filed, bobby brown has joined bobbi kristina's estate in filing a $10 million wrongful death civil suit against nick gordon. nick gordon's attorneys call the lawsuit meritless. they say nick too is heart broken and destroyed over the loss of bobbi kristina. abc news reached out to the houston family but they would not comment. today, bobby is married to his manager. alicia etherage brown. they have two children and one on the way. you have a beautiful home. >> thank you so much. i'm happy.

there may be tears coming out my eyes but i'm very happy right now. i have beautiful wife, beautiful kids. a beautiful chance to do something else great. god ain't finished with me yet. >> when we come back, did you hear it? it's the sound of that glass ceiling breaking, no matter what side the political isle you're on. on. d a lot of doubts going in. i was a smoker. hands down, it was, that's who i was. after one week of chantix, i knew i could quit. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. chantix definitely helped reduce my urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. some had seizures while taking chantix. if you have any of these,

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♪

we all know tonight is an historic night for women in politics. in a nation that less than a century ago didn't even allow females to vote, hillary clinton is now the first ever woman to carry her party's banner in the race for president. abc's david wright in brooklyn on the major american milestone and what comes next. >> reporter: good evening, tonight hillary clinton burst at least part way through that glass ceiling. becoming the first woman to clinch a major party's nomination for president in this country. her challenge now to unify her party. the big question will bernie sanders cooperate? she's been waiting years for this moment. the night she finally got to be the one making history. >> thanks to you we've reached a milestone. first time in our nation's history that a woman will be a major party's nominee. [ applause ]

>> reporter: it's been a long time coming. as clinton told my colleague, this isn't just about her. you have talked so often about the unfinished business, not only in this country but around the world when it comes to women's rights. is having the first female american president part of that unfinished business? >> it is, david. and it is, of course symbolic. but symbols mean something and symbols often can spark hope and action in people, particularly young people. and i think it would be a real milestone with my nomination for our country. but it will also send a signal around the world i care deeply about women's rights. i have been an out spoken advocate for them for many years and as secretary of state i carried that message around the world because empowering women, providing for women's rights, their full participation in

society, autonomy, is not only a matter of individuals being able to chart their own futures, it's good for democracy and peace and prosperity. >> reporter: tonight she reminded the crowd it was eight years to the day since she gave a different speech. june 7th, 2008, she swallowed her pride and finally endorsed barack obama. >> although we weren't able to shatter that highest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you it's got about 18 million cracks in it. >> reporter: but will bernie sanders do the same for her? >> the struggle continues. it's getting harder to get ignore the math. as of tonight, clinton has enough delegates to secure the democratic nomination and that's not likely to change between now and the convention. true, not all of them are

pledged delegates. the ones you earn winning primaries and caucuses. more than 500 are party insiders who have been with her since the beginning. it would be tough to for sanders to convince them to jump ship now. >> it's go being almost impossible. for bernie sanders to woo over hillary clinton's super delegates. since day one bernie sanders has been really against the rigged system but what he's asking clinton's super delegates to do is overturn the will of the voters, essentially asking them to rig the system. >> reporter: clinton supporters now feel a sense of urgency about turning the focus to the general election. >> donald trump is temporarily unfit to be president -- [ applause ] >> reporter: in part because donald trump has been stumbling this past week he said a federal judge hearing the fraud case against trump university is biassed against him because of his mexican ancestry.

here he is on "face the nation. ". >> he's member of a club that's very pro-mexican. which is fine. but i say he's gauot bias. i'm going to build a wall. >> reporter: clinton waisted no time calling him out. >> he wants to win by stoking fear and rubbing salt in wounds. and reminding us daily just how great he is. >> reporter: clinton iseger to get on with things so tonight she's putting primary season behind her. >> let's go out and make that case to america. thank you, god bless you and god bless america. >> reporter: whether or not bernie sanders is ready to do the same. i'm david right for "nightline" in brooklyn. we'll be back with some

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earning the mantle of the democratic nomination, hillary clinton accomplished what no other woman has ever done in our nation's history. clinton says she enjoys telling little girls that they too can be anything they want to be when they grow up, even president of the united states. but first she'll have to face off against donald trump. the outspoken outsider against the pioneering insider. thanks for watching abc news. tune into "good morning america" tomorrow and as always, we're online at abc news.com and our "nightline" facebook page. good night america. when consultant josh atkins books at laquinta.com. he gets a ready for you alert the second his room is ready. so he knows exactly when he can settle in and think big. and when josh thinks big you know what he gives? i'll give you everything i've got and then some... he gives a hundred and ten percent! i'm confident this 10% can boost your market share. look at that pie chart! boom! you've never seen a number like that! you feel me lois? i'm feeling you. yeah you do! let's do this! watch out he just had a whole thimble full of coffee...

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