Whitney Houston’s pal offers insight into late singer’s life amid stardom

Whitney Houston’s close friend Bebe Winans has recently offered insight into late singer’s life amid her stardom.

In a new interview with PEOPLE, Bebe said, “Whitney was someone who had such a big heart and loved people and wanted to help people.”

“But sometimes felt caged because of her success and her fame,” stated the 62-year-old at the It’s A Wonderful Lifetime Yuletide Event at E.P. & L.P. Rooftop in West Hollywood, California.

Bebe revealed he always considered Whitney his “sister and beyond a sister” in his life prior to her tragic demise on February 11, 2012.

Bebe explained that Whitney needed normalcy in her life after attaining success in her lifetime.

“She wanted to walk in malls and do everything that regular working people do,” admitted the musician.

Bebe recalled once Whitney “ran away and her hideaway was our house in Nashville, Tennessee.’

“We’d get a phone call just saying, ‘Is she there? Don’t tell her we called,’ and I’d say, ‘Yes, she’s here. She’s on my couch asleep,’” mentioned Bebe.

He also pointed out, “That was the kind of person people didn’t get a chance to see. That was the Whitney that we knew and miss terribly.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Bebe, who authored the book The Whitney I Knew in 2012, shared how his confidante helped him in buying property back in time.

“She came [to the showing] knowing she had something in her purse that was going to allow me to buy the house, because the banks had rejected my down payment because they felt like I was a risk. And she found out about it,” mentioned Bebe.

The musician further said, “This looks like my brother’s house,’ and I was like, ‘You said that about every room we went in,’ and then she reached in her pocket and she put out an envelope, and she gave it to me and in it was $50,000 to pay for what the bank had put on me.”

He told the outlet, “When I paid her back, she called and said, ‘You paid me back?’ and I said, ‘I told you I was.’ She said, ‘A lot of people say that!’ That was Whitney.”