Kevin Costner reacts to Whitney tribute

Kevin Costner "walked out of the room" during the tribute to Whitney Houston at the Billboard Music Awards.

Jordin Sparks performed the late singer's hit I Will Always Love You at the prestigious event on Sunday. Bobbi Kristina was seen breaking down in tears in the audience and later took to the stage to accept the Millennium Award on behalf of her mother with Patricia Houston.

Kevin worked with Whitney on the hit film The Bodyguard, and remained in close contact with the songstress up until her death. He found the homage hard to watch.

"I did see [Bobbi] speak," Kevin told ET Online. "That's a hard song for me to listen to anymore also so I kind of just walked out of the room, but...I was glad that she was out in public."

Whitney's last record was released this week. The disco-inspired track is called Celebrate and is a duet with Jordin. The single, which was produced by R. Kelly, premiered on Monday ahead of the late singer's upcoming film, Sparkle.

Whitney plays Jordin's on-screen mother in the musical drama.

Celebrate will be available on iTunes from June 5.