Singer BeBe Winans is giving fans insight into Whitney Houston’s complicated feelings around her success and superstardom.
Winans, a gospel artist and longtime friend to the late pop star, spoke Houston to People at the It’s A Wonderful Lifetime Yuletide Event, a recent event in West Hollywood, California.
“She was a sister, and beyond a sister,” Winans told the magazine. “She 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.”
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According to Winans, Houston yearned to do normal things like “walk in malls” and found comfort in escaping to his Nashville home for time away from the spotlight.
In addition to revealing Houston’s desire for a normal life, Winans also spoke to the publication about his friend’s generosity.
According to Winans, the I Will Always Love You singer once generously loaned him money to purchase a home when he was having trouble getting his down payment accepted.
“On the back porch, she 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,” Winans explained.
Winans wrote extensively about his friendship with Houston in a 2012 book called The Whitney I Knew. In it, the six-time Grammy winner looks back on their relationship, which started back in the 1980s.
“It was the best therapy to deal with the pain and loss,” Winans told Rolling Stone about writing the book.
Houston was just 48 years old when she accidentally drowned back in February 2012.
