Kevin Costner shared a sweet memory with his late pal, Whitney Houston, on his milestone 70th birthday.

After coming across a rare, behind-the-scenes photo of them together on set of their  1992 film The Bodyguard, the Yellowstone looked back on their close friendship and expressed gratitude to celebrate another year around the sun.

‘This photo reminds me of how lucky I am to be getting another birthday,’ he wrote on his Instagram Story as he shared an image that was uploaded to her account, which is managed by her estate. ‘We lost such a light when we lost Whitney.’

In the picture, the two-time Oscar winner can be seen smiling while standing next to the pop icon, who died in 2012 at age 48, and hairstylist Ellin LaVar.

Houston’s estate captioned the image: ‘Happy birthday to Kevin Costner! A behind the scenes photo from The Bodyguard with Kevin, Whitney and Ellin LaVar, Whitney’s hairstylist for the film.’

Earlier in the day, he shared an adorable throwback from his childhood of him wearing a cowboy outfit.

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Kevin Costner shared a sweet memory with his late pal, Whitney Houston, on his milestone 70th birthday

‘Thank you guys for the birthday wishes,’ he captioned the post. ‘If you can believe it, this is me. I was chasing the cowboy life just about as soon as I could walk, and here I am doing it still. Here’s to another year of keeping our sights set on our dreams.’

Last year, Costner revealed CNN tried to get him to shorten the eulogy he planned to deliver for Whitney Houston at her 2012 funeral.

While appearing on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, the actor claimed that the news network asked him to cut his tribute to Houston so that it could work in commercial breaks.

Ultimately, he insisted that he wasn’t willing to cut a word from his eulogy, and he dared CNN to cut to commercial in the middle of his speech.

Costner was one of eight people who spoke at Houston’s funeral, which was held in Newark, New Jersey.

The legendary singer was found dead in a bathtub on February 11, 2012, just hours before she was to attend Clive Davis’ annual pre-Grammy Awards party.

She was later determined to have died in an accidental drowning due to a combination of chronic cocaine abuse and heart disease.

Toxicology reports later indicated that Houston had used cocaine shortly before her death, and she also had Benadryl, the benzodiazepine Xanax, cannabis and the muscle relaxant Flexeril in her system.

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After coming across a rare, behind-the-scenes photo of them together on set of their 1992 film The Bodyguard, the Yellowstone looked back on their close friendship and expressed gratitude to celebrate another year around the sun

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‘We lost such a light when we lost Whitney,’ he wrote on his Instagram Story as he shared a throwback of them together

While speaking about his contribution to the memorial service, Costner told Shepard that the issues about his speech — which came out to just under 20 minutes — popped up shortly after he put the finishing touches on it.

‘I had been working on this speech… and I tried to compile everything I wanted to do and finally crafted this speech,’ he explained. ‘Somebody said, ‘CNN’s here, they wouldn’t mind if your remarks were kept shorter because they’re going to have commercials.”

But Costner wasn’t interested in giving his former costar a shortened eulogy in order to appease CNN’s commercial desires.

‘I said, ‘They can get over that. They can play the commercial while I’m talking, I don’t care,” he recalled saying.

It’s unclear if CNN or other cable news channels ultimately cut out of his speech to air commercials or if they broadcast his text in its entirety.

The Horizon star recalled the discomfort he felt before giving his speech, as he worried he might be going too long even for some of the attendees or other speakers.

‘There were some people that really wanted to speak, and they’re kind of staring daggers at me. What was I going to say?’ Costner recalled. ‘I started, and about 17 minutes later I was done.’

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Earlier in the day, he shared an adorable childhood throwback as he thanked fans for their birthday wishes and reflected on ‘chasing the cowboy life just about as soon as’ he ‘could walk’

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‘Thank you guys for the birthday wishes,’ he captioned the post. ‘If you can believe it, this is me. I was chasing the cowboy life just about as soon as I could walk, and here I am doing it still. Here’s to another year of keeping our sights set on our dreams’ (seen on December 5, 2024)

Costner worked with Houston on their 1992 romantic drama The Bodyguard, in which the singer shored up her acting bona fides by playing a pop star similar to herself who was threatened by a crazed stalker.

Costner played a former Secret Service agent–turned–body guard hired to protect Houston’s character, though their romantic feelings threaten to get in the way of his duty.

The film earned mixed reviews, but it was massively popular with viewers. It became the second highest–grossing film of 1992 and was at the time the tenth highest–grossing film of all time.

Houston’s soundtrack was also a massive hit, becoming the biggest-selling soundtrack and the best-selling album by a woman.

It featured Houston’s cover of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You, which came to be intimately associated with her.

The single spend 14 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, which broke a record at the time.