Across the many decades of his career so far, Kevin Costner has proven himself to be something of an expert by way of western films and TV shows, most recently with Paramount Network’s Yellowstone and with the upcoming super-sized feature series dubbed Horizon. And while he’s not exactly professionally trained in dealing with high-profile divorces, the actor is unfortunately quite familiar with those as well. Complications tied to his impending divorce from Christine Baumgarten have been making headlines, inspiring a reflective look back at his previous divorce from Cindy Silva, which wrapped up with a massive $80 million payout. But things won’t go the same way this time around.
When Kevin Costner and Cindy Silva first got together, they were both students at California State University, Fullerton, and went on to tie the knot in 1978 after they’d both graduated. He earned a Bachelor’s in marketing and finance, but it was his interest in acting that truly guided his early career, even if some of his efforts — the long-delayed Sizzle Beach, U.S.A. and The Big Chill’s deleted scenes, particularly — didn’t exactly help push things forward. But everything exploded in 1987 with the release of The Untouchables, which was followed by such critical and financial hits as Field of Dreams, Robin Hood; Prince of Thieves, JFK, The Bodyguard and A Perfect World, not to mention his acting and award-winning directing work on Dances with Wolves, which won Best Picture at the 1991 Academy Awards.
So in the 7 years or so between Costner playing Eliot Ness and his divorce from Silva, with whom he shares three children, he’d turned into a legitimate Hollywood superstar as an actor, director and producer. He was earning millions of dollars at that point, but because he had not set up a prenuptial agreement the first time around, that first divorce led to a whopping $80 million disbursement. That mega-total made it one of the most expensive Hollywood divorces at the time, and it remains that way to this very day, with that total being rounded up to $158 million when adjusted for inflation.
The stings from that whole situation clearly stuck with Kevin Costner over the years, as his eventual marriage to Chrstine Baumgartner in 2004 definitely included prenup stipulations. One of those agreements was tied to keeping separate residences in the event of divorce, which Baumgartner has apparently been defying by refusing to leave the main home in Santa Barbara that they’d shared, despite being beyond the 30-day limit set up in the court papers. (Baumbargner is the one who filed for divorce on April 11, which reportedly came as a shock to the actor.)
Here’s how Costner defended the residential details in the prenup, according to paperwork filed in a California court (via Insider):
I was married before, and upon separation, I found myself without a home base and unable to live in my own home. I never wanted this to happen again. Because of the nature of my work, I am frequently out of town; it is therefore particularly important to me that when I am home, I have a home to go to. Thus, when Christine and I began discussing marriage in 2003, I made it clear to her that I would not marry again without clarity that my separate property residences would remain mine to live in no matter what happened in our marriage.
Even though Kevin Costner has spent a lot of his time filming on location for Yellowstone, Horizon and his other projects in recent years, it remains vitally important to the actor to have a reliable homebase that he can return to and recuperate between projects. And though Baumgartner obviously won’t get anything near the $80 million that Silva received, the actor has claimed he’s attempted to help his to-be-ex out financially with securing another home, since it is important to him for their three children to be in a comfortable home when not at his estate.
Specifically, Costner’s lawyer Laura Wasser claims that he’s already provided upwards of $1 million to Baumgartner for her house-hunting. What’s more, he has allegedly vowed to take care of mortgage payments, taxes and insurance fees for the first year that she would be in the new home.
At this time, Christine Baumgartner has not yet been legally required to move out of the Santa Barbara home, and it’s unclear what the next step will be. Costner is expected to return to Montana at some point to finish filming what is now set to be the final episodes of Yellowstone proper, though a direct sequel series has already been ordered up by Paramount Network, with Matthew McConaughey expected to take on the lead role in that project, which has a November premiere planned.
