Whitney Houston files for divorce from Bobby Brown

LOS ANGELES - Grammy-winning pop star Whitney Houston has filed for divorce from singer Bobby Brown following 14 tumultuous years of marriage and tabloid headlines.

Publicist Nancy Seltzer confirmed that Houston, one of the most celebrated pop artists of the 1980s and '90s who has since largely retreated from the public eye, had filed the court papers.

Seltzer declined further comment, and it was not immediately clear if Houston, 43, was seeking custody of the couple's 13-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina. The couple married in 1992.

Representatives for Brown, who emerged from the teen pop group New Edition as an R&B crooner and ultimately star of his own reality TV show, "Being Bobby Brown," declined comment.

Houston also appeared in "Being Bobby Brown," which aired on cable TV in the US and raised eyebrows as the couple, evidently smitten with each other, would perform spontaneous song-and-dance routines in restaurants and stores.

Perhaps most memorably, Houston, best known for her tender ballads "I Will Always Love You" and "The Greatest Love of All," once recalled on the programme how Brown once manually assisted her in a bowel movement.

The daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston and cousin of pop star Dionne Warwick, Houston shot to fame with her 1983 debut album and won several Grammy awards over the next decade.

She also found success as an actress, appearing opposite Kevin Costner in "The Bodyguard."

Houston largely retreated from performing after the release of her 1999 album, "My Love is Your Love," but surfaced alongside Brown in the tabloids, which have long reported details of their stormy marriage.

In 2000, security guards in Hawaii found marijuana in the couple's luggage. Two years later Houston admitted in an ABC interview that she had used drugs in the past. Twice subsequently she entered treatment for drugs.

Brown also has had run-ins with the law, including arrests for drug possession, assault and drunken driving.

- REUTERS