As Kevin Costner turns 70, he’s remembering his former bandmate Whitney Houston.
On his birthday, January 18, Costner shared a photo on his Instagram Stories of himself and Houston on the set of the 1992 film “The Bodyguard,” in which the duo starred. The photo is from Houston’s estate-managed account.
“This photo reminds me how lucky I am to have another birthday,” Costner wrote in the post. “We lost such a light when we lost Whitney.”
Houston died at the age of 48 on February 11, 2012. She would have been 61 this year.
In the photo, Costner and Houston are joined by hairstylist Ellen LaVar.
“Happy Birthday Kevin Costner!” read the photo’s caption. “A behind-the-scenes photo from The Bodyguard with Kevin, Whitney, and Ellen LaVar, Whitney’s hairstylist for the film.”
In June of 2024, Costner said that when he spoke at Houston’s funeral in 2012, he refused to shorten the 17-minute length of his eulogy so that television networks such as CNN could air commercials during the broadcast.
“I was working on this speech…and I tried to put together everything I wanted to do and I finally put together this speech,” Costner said. “Someone said, ‘CNN is here, and they won’t mind if you keep your remarks shorter because they’ll have commercials.’ I said, ‘They can skip that. They can run the commercial while I talk. I don’t care.'”
He continued: “I felt the burden on her, and now it has moved on to me.” What am I going to say about this little girl? (I) went back to that church in Newark and it was full. It was electric. There were two bands playing, and the church was alive. It was like, boom!