Christine Baumgartner filed for divorce from Kevin Costner on May 1, 2023, in Santa Barbara County Superior Court, citing irreconcilable differences. The filing came just months before their 19th wedding anniversary and ended a marriage that had been publicly portrayed for nearly two decades as one of Hollywood’s most stable relationships. The couple first met in the early to mid-1990s on a golf course while Costner was preparing for his role in the 1996 film Tin Cup. They crossed paths again at a restaurant in 1998, where Costner asked for her phone number but made an unusual request: he asked if she would mind waiting exactly two weeks before he called.
He later admitted to the media that he did not realize this was a slight insult. Their relationship became exclusive in 1998, but hit a severe impasse in 2002 when Baumgartner, then in her late 20s, wanted children of her own. Costner, who already had four children from prior relationships, was hesitant and feared he could not be an effective father again. Baumgartner gave him an ultimatum, saying she would wait for him to conquer his fear but would not wait forever.
The couple reunited before the end of 2002, and Costner proposed in 2003. They married on September 25, 2004, at Costner’s private 160-acre estate called Dunbar Ranch near Aspen, Colorado. Roughly 300 guests attended, including Don Johnson, Tim Allen, and Mary McDonnell. Costner was 49 and Baumgartner was 30.
They had three children together: sons Cayden, born 2007, and Hayes, born 2009, and daughter Grace, born 2010. Behind the public image of a perfect marriage, the relationship was increasingly strained by Costner’s demanding career. The couple lived in California with their children while Costner filmed Yellowstone in Utah and Montana. Sources close to the couple said his prolonged absences during filming were a primary reason for their marital problems.
Costner had been hesitant to take the Yellowstone role because of the time it would take him away from his family. The strain deepened when Costner began working on his multi-part passion project Horizon: An American Saga. The production schedule required 220 days of filming, and Baumgartner was reportedly frustrated by his obsession with the project. Costner also chose to self-fund much of the project, mortgaging a significant portion of his personal net worth, which added financial pressure to the household.
Sources said Baumgartner had repeatedly asked him to step away from heavy filming schedules and focus on being a present co-parent, with one report saying she gave him an ultimatum to quit Yellowstone. The couple’s official date of physical separation was April 11, 2023. Costner’s representatives issued a statement saying it was with great sadness that circumstances beyond his control had transpired which resulted in his having to participate in a dissolution of marriage action. In court declarations, Baumgartner alleged that Costner told their three children about the divorce through a brief 10-minute Zoom call from a hotel room in Las Vegas while on location, without her consent or presence.
She said she had wanted to wait until he returned home so they could tell the children together and in person. She noted he was planning to be home just five days later. The divorce battle was shaped by a prenuptial agreement signed September 17, 2004, just days before the wedding. Costner said he insisted on the document because his 1994 divorce from his first wife, Cindy Silva, had resulted in an $80 million settlement that heavily depleted his wealth.
The prenup entitled Baumgartner to a one-time lump sum of roughly $1. 5 million, plus additional payments including $200,000 toward a new home and one year of property tax and insurance. The agreement contained a specific clause requiring Baumgartner to vacate all Costner-owned real estate within 30 days of a divorce filing. When that deadline expired in June 2023, she refused to leave the couple’s primary home, a cliffside ocean view compound in Carpinteria, California, valued at an estimated $145 million.
Costner had purchased the land and built the main structures in 1988, years before the marriage, making it his separate property under California law. Baumgartner’s lawyers argued that she could not safely relocate three teenagers without first establishing a court-mandated child support structure to fund a comparable rental property. Costner offered $30,000 per month for a rental house and a $10,000 advance for moving costs. On July 5, 2023, Judge Thomas P.
Anderle rejected Baumgartner’s arguments, upheld the prenup’s housing clause, and ordered her to vacate the main house by July 31. To comply, she moved into a smaller guest home on the same compound normally used as staff quarters. The judge also required Baumgartner to photograph every item she intended to pack and obtain Costner’s signed verification that she was not taking shared art, furniture, or appliances. She was permitted to take only her toiletries, clothing, handbags, and jewelry.
The most contentious issue was child support. In June 2023, Baumgartner’s team requested $248,000 per month, claiming it was less than the amount needed to maintain the children in their accustomed lifestyle. Her filings described a life of global travel and luxury as being in the teenagers’ DNA at that point. Her team later lowered the request to $175,000, then to $161,000 before the evidentiary hearing.
Costner’s legal team argued the historical cost of maintaining the children’s needs was closer to $51,000 per month and offered $75,000. Costner testified that his biggest concern was being ordered to pay child support above the needs of his children and for the needs of his ex-wife. His forensic accountants presented ledgers showing the household’s average monthly spending in 2022 was about $240,000, including large ATM cash withdrawals, boutique shopping, and spa treatments. Costner’s lawyers also alleged that Baumgartner had spent $188,500 on personal cosmetic procedures over a short period, claiming she was trying to mask personal luxury expenses as child support needs.
They presented evidence that, just before filing for divorce, she had charged $100,000 to the personal credit cards of Costner’s estate staff members to pay her private attorneys. During cross-examination, Baumgartner admitted to receiving a $20,000 cash payment from Josh Connor, a wealthy financier and family neighbor, during a trip to Hawaii in July 2023. She said it was a loan used to give cash gifts to her mother, and she denied Connor was her boyfriend at the time. On September 1, 2023, following a two-day evidentiary hearing, Judge Anderle ruled in Costner’s favor and ordered child support of $63,229 per month, roughly a quarter of what Baumgartner had initially demanded.
She was also ordered to pay over $14,000 to cover Costner’s defense costs early in the proceedings. The legal battle ended suddenly on September 19, 2023, just before a public trial challenging the validity of the prenuptial agreement was set to begin. Baumgartner signed a three-page settlement agreement after a judge informed her that the prenup would be enforced, meaning she would have had to repay more than $1 million and pay Costner’s attorney’s fees if she fought it in court. A joint statement confirmed the former couple had come to an amicable and mutually agreed upon resolution of all issues.
The settlement gave Baumgartner an amount slightly above the baseline $1. 5 million prenup allotment. The final decree specified that Costner was solely responsible for the children’s health insurance, private school tuitions, extracurricular activities, elite sports coaching, and their oldest son’s vehicle purchase and maintenance. The $63,000 monthly child support order remained in place.
The marriage was officially dissolved on Friday, February 16, 2024, when the final judgment was signed and entered into the court system. The decree included an unusual waiver of California’s mandatory co-parenting and mediation classes, reflecting the court’s confidence that both parties could co-parent without state intervention. Following the divorce, Baumgartner’s relationship with Josh Connor became public. The two had been neighbors in Montecito and developed a close friendship that turned romantic after both went through divorces.
On October 20, 2025, Baumgartner married Connor in a small, private beachside ceremony in Santa Barbara. Costner, meanwhile, was linked in late 2023 to singer-songwriter Jewel after they were spotted together at a tennis charity event on Richard Branson’s Necker Island. In 2024, he denied any romantic involvement, telling Howard Stern they had never gone out and that he did not want the rumors to ruin their friendship.
In June 2024, on CBS Mornings, Costner called the collapse of his 18-year marriage a deeply crushing, powerful, hurtful moment but said he had no choice but to dust himself off and move forward for the sake of his children.
