Bobby Brown speaks out about Whitney Houston on Today

NEW YORK (WHDH) -- Bobby Brown spoke out for the first time since the death of his ex-wife, Whitney Houston Wednesday morning.

Brown spoke candidly about their 14 years of marriage together, and he started by telling The Today Show’s Matt Lauer how he learned of Houston’s death from one of his New Edition band-mates.

“I heard the news actually through Ralph Tresvand,” Brown said. “He had his phone in his hand and said he just got a text and he just pulled me to the side.”

And despite what people have speculated, Bobby Brown told Matt Lauer in this exclusive interview that he never worried that drugs would take Whitney's life.

“I didn't think that way because I know how hard the struggle is to maintain sobriety, but she was doing wonderful,” he said. “Everything about her was going on the upward.”

Brown saw Whitney a week before her death when he was having dinner with their daughter, Bobby Christina.

“She had this glow about her that was just, you know, incredible, and I’m thinking to myself she must be doing really well because she looked really well,” he said.

When asked if he could have done more for Whitney:

“Maybe I could have done something different to ensure that she had a longer life but some things just happen,” he said. “God probably just needed her for the choir up there in heaven, and that's the biggest voice you have.”

Bobby Brown told Matt Lauer that drugs were a part of Whitney’s life long before they got together.

Thursday on ‘Today,’ in part two of the interview, Bobby will talk about what happened at Whitney’s funeral and his daughter, Bobby Christina.