WHITNEY HOUSTON, the pop singer whose powerful voice and operatic range helped her to sell more than 120 million albums, is to divorce her husband, the singer Bobby Brown.

The divorce follows years of poor reviews, declining sales and allegations of drug abuse for Houston and speculation that the 14-year marriage was near an end.

The couple had recently appeared in the reality television show Being Bobby Brown, which transfixed viewers with its graphic depiction of their relationship.

The Hollywood Reporter described the show as “undoubtedly the most disgusting and execrable series ever to ooze its way onto television . . . and when you consider the competition, that’s saying something.”

But the show helped to revive Brown’s flagging singing career, which has often taken second place to his reputation for drug use and violence. During one now-infamous episode of the show, Brown ordered Houston to “bring that a** in quick, I’m going to show you what I’m going to do with it”.

Brown spent time in jail in 2000 for refusing to take a drug test, and again in 2004 for missing three months of child support payments for two children from a previous relationship.

He was most recently arrested in March on driving charges dating back 14 years when he visited Massachusetts to watch one of his children take part in a cheerleading tournament.

A publicist for Houston, 43, confirmed that she had filed for divorce but would not comment further. “I can just confirm that she has filed.”

The couple, who live in Alpharetta, Georgia, have one child together, a 13-year-old daughter called Bobbi Kristina.

Rumours that the couple were to break up surfaced over the years. One reviewer said in the Hollywood Reporter that Being Bobby Brown robbed Houston of her dignity.

In recent years, Houston has worked as an executive producer on two films, The Cheetah Girls and The Cheetah Girls 2, starring the singer RavenSymone. Nothing has come close to matching her success of more than a decade ago, when she had several No 1 records on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, including I Will Always Love You, from the 1992 film The Bodyguard, in which she also starred opposite Kevin Costner.

Houston began her career as a member of the Hope Baptist Junior Choir in Newark, New Jersey, where her mother served as minister of music. The singer was coached not only by her mother, but also by Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick. Before meeting Brown, 37, she had been linked romantically with the comedian Eddie Murphy and Michael Jackson’s brother Jermaine.

In July Brown was reunited with his first band, New Edition, for a show at the Essence Musical Festival. The performance got a mixed response from the audience when he jumped suggestively around the stage and made remarks about his sex life with Houston.

HIGHS AND LOWS

• Houston is the daughter of the gospel-blues singer Cissy Houston and the cousin of Dionne Warwick
  
  
• There is a Whitney E. Houston Academy named after her in her home town of East Orange, New Jersey
  
  
• The album of her film The Bodyguard sold 37 million copies, making it the best-selling soundtrack and the best-selling female album of all time
  
  
• A review in the Hollywood Reporter of the reality TV show Being Bobby Brown said: “Not only does it reveal Brown to be even more vulgar than the tabloids suggest, but it manages to rob Houston of any last shreds of dignity”