Bobby Brown: Was He Turned Away From Whitney Houston's Funeral?

Despite reports that he was barred from attending, Brown's management say that was not the case

Photo: Eagle Press

Did Bobby Brown attend his late wife’s funeral after all?

His presence (or lack thereof) was debated Saturday, with conflicting reports surfacing about his whereabouts. Despite talk that he’d be in attendance to support his family, a source says Bobby Brown was turned away from Whitney Houston’s funeral.

“Bobby was outside the church,” a source at Newark, N.J.’s New Hope Baptist Church tells PEOPLE. “He hugged his brother and then got in a car, and they drove him off.”

Adds the source: “They wouldn’t allow him in.” Brown’s management disputes those reports, and HLN shared a different account.

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“Bobby Brown went inside the church,” HLN Tweeted. “He walked by Whitney’s casket and then came back up the isle. His eyes were red, and his head was down.”

A relative also tells PEOPLE that Brown was indeed invited to the funeral and that Houston’s family knew he was attending.

The source adds that he wanted to attend to support his daughter with Houston, Bobbi Kristina, who was briefly hospitalized after having a nervous breakdown last week.

“She wanted her dad to be there for her mom,” the relative says. “She is not going to be happy that he was turned back.”

ABC News reported that the R&B singer was spotted leaving the church in a Cadillac Escalade along with his two children, Landon and LaPrincia.

Leading up to the funeral for Houston, who died last week at 48, Brown has been spending time with Kristina.

Brown, now 43, and Houston wed in 1992 and divorced in 2007 after a rocky, highly publicized, relationship.

The Associated Press is streaming Whitney Houston’s private funeral service Saturday on its Livestream site, and it is available to watch on PEOPLE.com.

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