Long-term and Short-term Debt (Details) - Intercompany Liquidity Facilities - USD ($) $ in Millions	Mar. 31, 2020	Mar. 30, 2020
Short-term Debt [Line Items]
Intercompany maximum borrowing lending limit	3.00%
Brighthouse Life Insurance Company as Lender
Short-term Debt [Line Items]
Debt instrument, face amount		$ 100
Debt instrument, interest rate		2.4996%
BH Holdings as Lender
Short-term Debt [Line Items]
Debt instrument, face amount		$ 100
Debt instrument, interest rate		2.4996%

Maximum limit on total borrowing and lending under intercompany liquidity facilities calculated as a percentage of the respective insurance subsidiary's statutory admitted assets as of the previous year end.

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	bhl_IntercompanyLiquidityFacilitiesMaximumBorrowingLendingLimit
Namespace Prefix:	bhl_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Face (par) amount of debt instrument at time of issuance.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 835
-SubTopic 30
-Section 45
-Paragraph 2
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=114775744&loc=d3e28551-108399

Reference 2: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 835
-SubTopic 30
-Section 55
-Paragraph 8
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=114775985&loc=d3e28878-108400

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentFaceAmount
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Contractual interest rate for funds borrowed, under the debt agreement.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 210
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.5-02.22(a)(1))
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6877327&loc=d3e13212-122682

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

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Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_LineOfCreditFacilityAxis=bhl_BrighthouseLifeInsuranceCompanyMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_LineOfCreditFacilityAxis=bhl_BrighthouseHoldingsLLCMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: