Whitney Houston 'Felt Caged Because of Her Success,' BeBe Winans Says: She 'Had Such a Big Heart' (Exclusive)

Whitney Houston had a hard time dealing with her fame, says BeBe Winans.

While speaking with PEOPLE at the EP & LP Rooftop’s It’s A Wonderful Lifetime Yuletide event in West Hollywood, Calif., the gospel artist, 62, recalled how the late music icon often felt held back by her worldwide success.

“She was a sister, and more than a sister,” Winans said. “She was someone who had such a big heart and loved people and wanted to help them, but sometimes she felt closed off because of her success and her fame.”

Detailing that Houston “wanted to walk the malls” and “do all the things regular working people do,” the artist said his late friend “ran away sometimes … and her hideout was our house in Nashville, Tennessee.”

“We’d get a phone call that would just say, ‘Is she there? Don’t tell her we called,’ and I’d say, ‘Yeah, she’s here. She’s sleeping on my couch,'” Winans added. “That was a person that people didn’t get a chance to see. That was the Whitney we knew and we miss terribly.”

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BeBe Winans at the It’s A Wonderful Lifetime Yuletide Event in West Hollywood on November 19.

Paul Archuleta/Getty

Remembering the extraordinary life of Whitney Houston in photos

Winans and the “How Will I Know” singer share a long friendship. The Detroit native wrote about his time over the years with Houston — who died in February 2012 at age 48 — in his book The Whitney I used to know.

Recalling a fond memory he shared with Houston, Winans told PEOPLE, “I remember years ago she came to a house I was going to buy… she came knowing she had something in her purse that would allow me to buy because they the banks rejected my advance because they thought I was a risk and she found out about it.”

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From left: Whitney Houston, BeBe Winans and CeCe Winans.

Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty

Describing how Houston “flew in” to tour the house with him, Winans continued, “On the back porch she said, ‘This looks like my brother’s house,’ and I said, ‘You said that about every room we went into. ,’ and then she reached into her pocket and put an envelope, she gave it to me and in it was 50,000 dollars to pay what the bank put on me.”

“When I returned it to her, she called and said, ‘You returned it to me?’ and I said, ‘I told you I did’. She said, ‘A lot of people say that!’ That was Whitney,” he added.

Winans currently stars in Lifetime’s We Three Kings BeBe Winanswhich premieres Saturday, November 30 at 8:00 PM EST.

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Source: HIS Education