AceShowbiz - Whitney Houston called time on her same-sex relationship with close friend Robyn Crawford because she felt it would "make her journey more difficult."

Robyn has opened up about her relationship with the music icon, seven years after the star's tragic passing, in her powerful new memoir, "A Song for You: My Life with Whitney Houston".

The pair met in 1980 when Robyn was 19 and the "So Emotional" singer was almost 17, and struck up a strong bond, which according to the hitmaker's pal soon became intimate.

"We wanted to be together," Robyn penned. "And that meant just us."

However, Whitney ended the physical part of their relationship early on, soon after she signed a record deal with Clive Davis at Arista, as Robyn recalled: "She said we shouldn't be physical anymore because it would make our journey even more difficult."

"She said if people find out about us, they would use this against us," she added, explaining, "and back in the '80s that's how it felt."

The singer broke the news by giving Robyn a gift of a slate blue Bible one day in 1982, and she claimed there was also pressure from Whitney's family, including her mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston, to break off the romance.

"Whitney told me her mother said it wasn't natural for two women to be that close," said Robyn. "But we were that close."

"We never talked about labels, like lesbian or gay," writes Crawford. "We just lived our lives and I hoped it could go on that way forever."

Robyn maintained deep and lasting bond with Houston, who struggled with drug use and died in 2012 at the age of 48, and confessed: "Whitney knows I loved her and I know she loved me. We really meant everything to each other. We vowed to stand by each other."

"A Song for You: My Life with Whitney Houston" is out November 12.