Brandy has recalled feeling “unimaginable grief” and shutting herself in her home for months after being involved in a car crash that left one woman dead.
The Boy is Mine singer was involved in a four-car accident on a Los Angeles freeway in 2006 and while Brandy – who was 27 at the time – walked away with no physical injuries, the driver of the vehicle she crashed into was taken to hospital and died the following day. She was identified as Awatef Aboudihaj, a 38-year-old with two children.
In her new memoir, Phases, Brandy shares her memories of the accident, recalling how she felt “focused, present [and] alert” in the moments before it occurred.
She writes: “I didn’t see the car ahead of me strike the vehicle in front, didn’t register the sudden chain reaction until my world was being split into two halves: before and after.”
Brandy, whose full name is Brandy Norwood, says that in the days that followed, she felt an “unimaginable grief” and found herself unable to stop thinking about the woman who had died. “I no longer felt I had the right to continue living my life, or even to experience fleeting glimmers of joy.”
“And so, I shut myself in the house,” she writes. “Days turned to weeks. Weeks turned to months. It was easier to hide than to face the world.”
Brandy adds that her young daughter Sy’Rai “became my lifeline”, writing: “I knew I owed it to her to keep going. “
Aboudihaj’s family claimed the singer was to blame for the crash and filed a lawsuit for $50 million in damages. An investigation found the accident was not Brandy’s fault and the case was eventually settled outside the court three years later, with the star paying an undisclosed settlement to Aboudihaj’s widow and children.
In her new memoir, the 47-year-old charts her rise to fame on the teen sitcom Moesha and her years as one half of the Grammy-winning duo Brandy and Monica. The pair had a years-long falling out in 1998 but last year patched things up for a reunion tour named after their biggest hit, The Boy is Mine.
Phases also sees Brandy discuss her bond with her brother, fellow singer Ray J, who was said in January that he had “almost died” after being taken to hospital with severe pneumonia.
