Celebrity

Houston Family Had Restraining Order Against Bobbi Kristina's 'Husband' Nick Gordon

In court documents, Marion Houston, Brown's aunt, claimed Gordon sent threatening texts and photos of guns

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Published on February 4, 2015 07:10 PM

The tensions between Nick Gordon and the family of the late Whitney Houston have been mounting for years – and boiled over in 2014 with a restraining order.

While Bobbi Kristina Brown, the 21-year-old daughter of Houston and Bobby Brown, fights for her life in a Georgia hospital after being found unconscious in a bathtub on Saturday, the Houston and Brown families have been united as they maintain a daily bedside vigil.

But there is no love lost between the Houstons and Gordon, 25, whose “marriage” to Bobbi Kristina never took place, according to a statement Brown’s attorneys released Tuesday.

In March 2014, Marion “Pat” Houston, 54 – whose husband is Whitney’s brother Gary and who serves as the executor of the trust fund Whitney set up for her daughter – petitioned for a temporary protective order against Gordon.

In court documents filed in Fulton County, Georgia, and obtained by PEOPLE, Houston said Gordon had “made threatening comments and posted photos of guns with the intention of making petitioner fearful for her personal safety. Respondent then posted more photos of guns later and has sent harassing texts.”

A March police report elaborated on the conflict, noting that Gordon and Bobbi Kristina “are not pleased with Marion controlling Whitney Houston’s estate.”

“Marion informed me that Mr. Gordon wants Ms. Brown’s monthly allowance increased,” the report said. “Marion refused to relinquish the money. Marion stated that Mr. Gordon has turned Krissy against the family and in the process has said threatening statements to Marion and other family members.” (After reviewing Gordon’s Twitter feed and other sources Houston cited as having harassing messages toward her, Alpharetta police declined to investigate further.)

The petition requested that Gordon be barred from approaching within 200 yards of Houston and her home and that he be ordered to undergo “appropriate psychiatric or psychological services.”

A Georgia court granted Houston’s request last April, issuing a one-year protective order that forbids any contact between Gordon and Houston as well as Houston’s “immediate family.”

Gordon was largely raised by Whitney Houston and grew up alongside Bobbi Kristina, but was never formally adopted into the family. He and Bobbi Kristina took their romance public after Houston’s death in February 2012 – sparking concern among family members.

“He’s one of the only people who can actually get through to her sometimes, and I think he sometimes uses that to his advantage,” a family insider told PEOPLE in 2012. “He has the ability to influence her.”

A Houston family friend said that when Whitney was alive, “He was traveling around the world with them and I didn’t like it. Whitney perhaps didn’t see [the relationship with Bobbi Kristina] for what it was.”

Meanwhile, the same friend said in 2012 that Marion, whom the family calls Pat, had “taken the helm” of Bobbi Kristina’s assets after Whitney’s death.

“Pat is directing everything, essentially,” the friend said.

• With reporting by DEVAN LESLEY