Whitney Houston files for divorce

SANTA ANA, Calif., Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Singer Whitney Houston has filed for divorce from singer Bobby Brown in California.

Houston, who has maintained that the couple's separation was in fact a divorce from the beginning, made it official when she filed papers this week in Orange County Superior Court, E! Online reported.

The couple's troubled 14-year marriage, which had been the focus of the Bravo TV series "Being Bobby Brown," ended last month when the 43-year-old Houston filed separation documents asking for custody of their daughter, Bobbi Kristina.

The divorce papers are the most recent legal problem facing the 37-year-old former New Edition member, who had faced arrest under a Massachusetts warrant after failing to appear in court to face charges of delinquent child support payments.

E! Online said Brown ultimately took care of the situation and the arrest warrant by paying $11,000 in back child support payments to Kim Ward, the mother of two of his other children.