Susanna Reid's interview with Dionne Warwick took an awkward turn today (14 September) when the R&B legend accused the presenter of trying to "hurt" her with questions about her late cousin, Whitney Houston.

The 72-year-old star had appeared on the breakfast show to discuss her upcoming performance at a children's benefit for the Dot Com children's foundation, but became visibly upset when quizzed about her own personal tragedies.

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Thing started to turn sour when Reid broached the topic by saying:"Your family has experienced tragedy, of course, your cousin."

Houston was found dead in her Beverly Hills hotel suite on the eve of the Grammy Awards in February 2012. The official coroner's report ruled that she accidentally drowned in a bathtub because of heart disease and chronic cocaine use. Three years later, her daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown died at the age of 22 in similar circumstances.

Warwick hit back by warning Reid to avoid any mention of her private life. "We're not going to discuss that, OK? That's a bygone conclusion," she said. "We're not discussing that, we're here to discuss Dot Com."

Reid then attempted to change tack by citing the recent Houston documentary to justify her question, but Warwick swiftly cut her off. "I would just rather... first of all, this is a very personal thing," she said.

Dionne Warwick
Singer Whitney Houston, Singer Dionne Warwick and Bobbi Kristina Brown arrives at the 2011 Pre-GRAMMY Gala and Salute To Industry Icons Honoring David Geffen at Beverly Hilton on February 12, 2011 in Beverly Hills, California Getty

The performer went on to accuse the Reid of trying to hurt her by reminding her of her traumatic experience. "Why would you guys even want to continue to hurt me like that? Because that does hurt? So let's leave it there. Can we go on talking about Dot Com now?" she said.

Taken back, Reid tried to make amends by telling her: "Absolutely, right," as co-host Ben Shephard attempted to pacify the situation by adding: "There was no intention [to hurt you]."

Fans tuning into the show took to social media in their drives to praise the music icon for the way she handed Reid.

"What a brilliant put down to Reid by Dionne shame it hadn't been to Moron-mouth Morgan but would he have respected Dionne..don't think so!" one person wrote.

Meanwhile, Reid has revealed that she is a Twitter quitter due to the onslaught of abuse she regularly gets from trolls.

The journalist, who has over 400k followers on Twitter and 98k followers on Instagram, told co-host Ben Shepherd: "If I get something nasty on social media I just delete it for a couple of hours and go back later."