Bobby Brown’s first interview since Whitney Houston’s death on The Today Show

Bobby Brown has been widely derided by many fans being responsible for introducing Whitney Houston to the drugs which played a part in her untimely death.

Now, Bobby Brown has hit back at the claims in his first interview since the singer passed away back in February.

“I didn’t get high [on narcotics] before I met Whitney,” Bobby Brown tells The Today Show’s Matt Lauer.

“I smoked weed, I drank the beer, but no, I wasn’t the one that got Whitney on drugs at all.”

Bobby Brown, 43, says drugs were a part of Whitney Houston’s life “way way before” they got together.

Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown married in 1993 and had daughter Bobbi Kristina, now 19-years-old, before divorcing in 2007.

Bobby Brown adds: “It’s just unexplainable how one could, [say that I] got her addicted to drugs. I’m not the reason she’s gone.”

In the candid sit-down interview which will air in the U.S. this Wednesday, Bobby Brown, who says he is “very much clean and sober’ from narcotics,” tells host Matt Lauer that he was “hurt” when he heard the news of Whitney Houston’s death at just 48-years-old.

“I was hurt because me being off of narcotics for the last seven years, I felt that she was… I didn’t know she was struggling with it still,” says Bobby Brown, who looks studious in a pink sweater over a checked shirt.

“But at the same time, listen, it’s a hard fight. It’s a hard fight to maintain sobriety that way.”

Matt Lauer then presses home the media speculation to Bobby Brown, saying: “If I heard it once, I heard it a hundred times, and I know you heard it too. Fans, people who say they were close to Whitney, say her life went downhill when she met Bobby Brown. How does it make you feel when you hear it?”

“It makes me feel terrible,” Bobby Brown responds.

“But I know differently. I think 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. They would know how happy we were together.”

Bobby Brown also recalls the last time he saw Whitney Houston – about a week before she died.

“She had this glow about her that was just incredible,” he says.

“I’m saying to myself, <<She must be doing really well>>, because she looked really well. She looked like she was in a good place.”

Whitney Houston was found dead in Beverly Hilton Hotel bathtub on February 11 from what authorities called accidental drowning brought on by cocaine use and heart disease. White powder and drug paraphernalia were found in the bathroom where she died.

The second part of Bobby Brown’s interview with Matt Lauer airs on Thursday on U.S. network NBC and features interviews with three of the singer’s children Landon, Bobby Jr., and La’Princia – and his fiancée, Alicia Etheridge.

It has not been smooth sailing for Bobby Brown since Whitney Houston’s death.

He turned up for Whitney Houston’s funeral in New Jersey but left before the service started saying he felt unwanted and disrespected.

And six weeks after Whitney Houston died, Bobby Brown was arrested and charged in Los Angeles with DUI and driving on a suspended license. Brown has pleaded not guilty.