Kevin Costner and estranged wife Christine’s divorce is messy. (Photo: David Livingston/Getty Images)
Kevin Costner‘s divorce from second wife Christine is getting messier by the minute.
Details about the usually private actor and director’s personal life and finances are being revealed amid the bitter split. According to court documents obtained by Yahoo, the Yellowstone star’s estranged wife says he’s worth “at least $400,000,000,” so she’s fighting the terms of their 2004 prenuptial agreement, which has given her a $1 million-plus payout since the split. Christine, 49, is seeking $248K a month in child support alone from Kevin, 68, to start. She also claims he “disregarded” her input by breaking the news of the divorce to their three children without her during a “10-minute Zoom call” home.
Christine — who filed for divorce on May 1 after 18 years of marriage, listing the separation date at April 11 — said in a declaration filed June 16 that she was “concerned” the children would find out about the divorce before they could tell them. She said it was important to her to tell the kids in person together. Christine claimed she told Kevin this and shared articles about “the importance of talking to the children as a united front.” However, she claimed that Kevin “disregarded my proposal to do what I felt was right based on research and my relationship with the children. Instead, he insisted that he had the right to tell them that we were getting divorced ‘first’ and tell them privately ‘without me present.'”
Christine said, “From his hotel room in Las Vegas, Kevin told our three children” Cayden Wyatt, 16, Hayes Logan, 14, and Grace Avery, 13, “that we were getting divorced over a 10-minute Zoom call without me present. I am still confused by his motivation to do this via a very short Zoom session, especially since he was planning on being home five days later. He also could have easily come home from Las Vegas to have the conversation in person.”
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Additional details from the court documents…
Christine suggests she’ll be challenging their prenup
Christine, who used to be a handbag designer, is not employed and has “no personal income,” she says. Her assets include a bank account with “less than $50,000” from before their marriage and an account Kevin set up for her when they were married, per their prenup. Kevin put two payments of $100,000 into the account (when they married and on their first wedding anniversary), per the prenup, and it’s grown in savings to $450,000. After she filed for divorce, he deposited $1 million into the account, also per their prenup, so she can move out of the properties he owned going into the marriage. However, she says she won’t touch that money because she thinks if she does, Kevin “can argue that I’ve waived my right to challenge the Premarital Agreement. I cannot make this concession” and “do not accept payment” as she apparently seeks a larger payout.
She wants $248K per month in child support
Christine says her goal post-split is to “set up a suitable separate household that is at least somewhat commensurate with the children’s accustomed lifestyle.” To do so, she needs the $248K in support and to have Kevin pay 100% of the children’s private school tuition, fees for their extracurricular activities and all health care expenses (including medical, dental, therapeutic and orthodontic).
“I understand that guideline child support based on Kevin’s income in 2022 would be $152,681 per month, she acknowledges. However, “the amount needed to maintain the children’s current lifestyle is $332,264 per month, which is 60% of what our family spent. This may seem like a lot, but this is based on actual figures” from their 2022 income and expenses.
Kevin and Christine Costner with their children in 2019. (Photo: Michael Tran/FilmMagic)
She also wants $500,000 in legal fees by Aug. 1
Due their vast differences in resources, she requests that Kevin pay an additional $350,000 in attorney’s fees and $150,000 in forensic costs to her attorney before August 1.
She won’t move out until Kevin commits to paying “appropriate” child support
While he has said their prenup states she must move out of his pre-marital property within 30 days of a divorce filing (with him giving her $1 million toward housing), and she claims to be “been willing to move out,” she won’t go until Kevin is “willing to commit to paying an appropriate amount of child support.” She said while Kevin has “continued to pay all of our expenses since separation” — including $95,000 in lawyer and accounting fees — she claims he’s “done a number of things to make it more difficult for me to pay for things, and there is no guarantee he will continue to pay these expenses going forward until an agreement is in place.”
She estimates Kevin to be worth $400 million
The Academy Award winner’s finances are detailed and — no surprise — he is very, very rich. “Although we have not done formal discovery, we believe that Mr. Costner’s net worth is in excess of $400,000,000 and his recent reported income is in excess of $19,000,000 per year,” her attorneys state. It lists Kevin’s “average monthly cash flow” as $1,536,808.
He made $19,517,064.32 in 2022
Kevin’s accountant provided his income for last year. Highlights include his Tig Films — behind projects including Dances with Wolves, Wyatt Earp and The Bodyguard — pulling in $10.2 million. Their 160-acre Aspen property, where the couple married, brought in $2,312,458, while a guest house on the Beach Club compound that they rented — to a tenant who denied being the “other man” just days ago — paid them $503,000. Meanwhile, his stocks put $5,647,000 in their bank account and an unspecified “inheritance” gave them $454,803. She notes in her declaration that “most of our homes are owned without any debt.” (Minus the property he mortgaged to fund his film project Horizon: An American Saga.)
Christine notes, “I realize that our lifestyle is extraordinary. I appreciate how very blessed we are to live this way. It’s important to not only to provide a warm and comfortable home for our children but to also teach them family values and gratitude.”
Their expenses in 2022 were $6,645,285
They own multiple luxury properties and shell out millions to maintain them. Their Aspen property alone costs $1,964,294 in upkeep. (They pay a rancher $91,999, $21,807 for spa services and $19,576.72 for “cleaning.”) The Beach Club compound in Carpinteria, Calif., cost $1,408,180. (Of that, $448,446 was paid in gardening costs, $12,780 in private security within the gated community and $10,800 for pool maintenance.)
They have a house manager, a person who assists with grocery shopping and meal preparation, a housekeeper who assists with cleaning and laundry. They’re also members at “several” country clubs.
“In addition … our family travels several times per year … [to] vacation in the Caribbean and Hawaii, and travel to Aspen several times per year, usually during the winter and summer” with family and friends joining them. It’s noted their private plane costs are “apparently paid through other entities controlled by Kevin.”
Their family home is worth an estimated $100 million
Kevin owned their Beach Club Road compound in Carpinteria, Calif., prior to them marrying, but it has expanded over the years. The compound is now composed of three homes and two additional lots, along the water. The main house is approximately 5,000 square feet with “four bedrooms, an infinity pool overlooking the beach and ocean, a subterranean art room and surf garage.” There’s a guest house with a gym, basketball court, pergola for dining, an outdoor “living room,” a fire-pit and chicken coop. There’s another guest house that Kevin uses for film editing, which the recently rented it for $65K per month to real estate investor Daniel Starr (who denied having an affair with Christine). The compound also boasts two additional lots they use just for outdoor space.
“Given the unique location and attributes of our compound, the combined value of our five properties is likely in excess of $100 million,” she writes in her declaration.
They have a second waterfront Carpinteria property worth “approximately $50M to $80M”
They also own a 17-acre property half a mile down the beach, which they bought and planned to build a dream home on but later changed their mind, deciding to renovating the beach compound instead. They thought about selling it a few years ago, but changed their minds. Costner said recently said he mortgaged the ranch for his latest film project.
She says Kevin was once offered $250 million for their Aspen property
The Aspen estate, which Kevin also owned before they were married, is “truly unique,” Christine says. It’s 10 minutes from the town center but “surrounded by a national forest that cannot be developed.” The property has several homes and two lakes, and they rent it “for $250,000 per week during the high season.” She said they have a fleet of “a dozen ATVs and snowmobiles” for the kids to ride.
Kevin Costner married his girlfriend of 5 years, Christine Baumgartner at their Aspen, Colorado ranch on September 25, 2004 during the Kevin Costner and Christine Baumgartner Wedding Photos in Aspen, CO. (Photo: WireImage House/WireImage)
Christine says she met Kevin “on the golf course at the Alisal Ranch when I was 18”
That was around 1992, when he was still married to his first wife, college sweetheart Cindy, with whom he shares three children. He was divorced in 1994 — amid rumors of infidelity while making Waterworld, resulting in a reported $80 million payout to his ex — and then he had a child with Bridget Rooney in 1996. Six years after they first met, Christine said she and the Tin Cup star played “our first game of golf … started dating shortly thereafter.” They were together for 24 years.
In his own declaration, Kevin says that he established a prenup because after his divorce from Cindy, he was pushed out of their home and felt displaced. So it was important to add a clause stating she would have to leave their home 30 days after a divorce filing.
She says she raised the kids and “encouraged” Kevin to “live his dreams”
Christine says she “traveled the world in private planes, stayed in luxurious hotels and private homes” with the “handsome” and “charming” movie star when they got together. While he’s “often on location for approximately four months at a time throughout the year,” she’s made it her priority “to focus on raising our family.” She says the “children are very attached to me and are accustomed to my hands-on involvement in their daily lives.” She drives them places, cooks, helps with homework, signs them up for extracurricular activities, surfs and plays board games with them. However, she notes that it’s “important for our kids to stay connected with their dad” and she’s “agreed to a joint custody parenting arrangement.”
She goes on to say she’s “encouraged Kevin to wear many hats and live his dreams, even if that meant spending time away from our family.” In addition to acting and direction, that includes touring with his band and starting other business ventures. “I never questioned the time or commitment it took for him to do what he loved,” she writes.
Christine says she’s encouraged Kevin, performing with his band Modern West in 2021, to follow his dreams while she’s stayed home with their kids. (Photo: Terry Wyatt/Getty Images)
She accuses Kevin of public attacks
“I have avoided being public about the reasons for our divorce,” she wrote. However, she wants it to be clear that, “I did not pressure Kevin to leave the Yellowstone show,” amid his departure ahead of the final episodes of the Paramount series. “Kevin’s public attacks on me are harmful for our family. I believe they are meant to pressure me to move out without a temporary child support agreement in place.”
There is already a trial date set in Superior Court of California, County of Santa Barbara beginning on Nov. 27. The very next step is a case management conference on July 5 to look at the validity and enforceability of the prenup.
The documents note that Kevin, who returns to California this month after making the second part of Horizon in Utah, has a long-planned vacation scheduled with the couple’s kids in British Columbia in mid-July.
You can view the original article HERE.
