Kevin Costner prefers not to think of Whitney Houston's "troubles".

The 'Hatfield & McCoys' actor delivered the eulogy at his 'Bodyguard' co-star's funeral in February, and though he was aware of her personal problems, including a struggle with drug abuse, he doesn't think her difficulties overshadow her professional achievements.

He said: "I tried to identify [her vulnerability] in my eulogy. I think about Whitney a little bit the way I think about the Kennedy family.

"I know there's trouble, but I choose to think about a lot of other stuff. The trouble is as real as the achievement, but it does not tarnish it."

Kevin spent a lot of time writing the "important" eulogy for his friend - who died as a result of accidental drowning in her bath and effects of heart disease and cocaine use - and hoped he was able to give people a new side of the 'I Will Always Love You' hitmaker to think about.

He told Parade magazine: "My wife [Christine Baumgartner] and I flew into New York on a Friday night, and the next day we went to the funeral. I was writing [my eulogy] on the plane, in the limo, in bed. It was important. When I first walked into that church, it was electric, man.

"I started with the idea that sometimes what you think life will be it won't be at all, and about what was real between Whitney and me, what we talked about - being in church when we were little, both getting in trouble, about our not wanting to be preachers.

"I wanted to impart a bit of the Whitney that I knew, and maybe people could think about her in a different way."