"He didn't call me a single time, not once, when he didn't ask about Hillary (Clinton) and Chelsea," Clinton said of their conversations during the time both were in office. "If it wasn't too late, he'd ask me to go get Chelsea, bring her to the phone, ask about her homework."

Clinton said the anti-apartheid icon never lost touch with his humanity.

"I saw in him something that I try not to lose in myself, which is no matter how much responsibility you have," Clinton said, "he remembered you were a person first."