This genuinely shocked me: Kevin Costner and Christine Baumgartner settled their divorce, just a few months before they were supposed to head back to court for what looked like an especially messy fight over the prenup. When we last checked in on the Baumgartner-Costner divorce, the elderly family judge was taking Costner’s side across the board, and the judge awarded Christine with significantly less money than she was asking for in child support. They were also gearing up for battle over who will pay Christine’s legal bills, and none of it was looking good for Christine. It didn’t even seem like she had a leg to stand on when it came to nullifying the prenup. So why would Kevin settle? I guess he low-balled her and she just took it, knowing that if she pursued the fight to nullify the prenup, she would end up an even bigger loser in court.
It may be the most shocking turn of events this year … the divorce war between Kevin Costner and Christine Baumgartner is now history, because they have SETTLED UP!!!
As improbable as a settlement seemed, there were signs it might happen. As we reported, Kevin’s legal team, headed up by disso queen Laura Wasser, won a series of legal skirmishes, particularly in the child support department. Wasser submitted paperwork to the court saying Kevin’s monthly obligation should be $63k a month. Christine wanted $248k a month, and after a 2-day evidentiary hearing in Santa Barbara earlier this month, Judge Thomas Anderle sided with Kevin.
The judge also made it pretty clear … the prenup would be enforced, and if Christine challenged it she would have to repay Kevin more than $1 million and pay his attorney’s fees for the prenup fight. Apparently, Christine saw the handwriting on the wall and agreed over the weekend to the terms of a 3-page settlement letter.
The 2 were married for 18 years and had 3 kids together. Christine filed for divorce back in May and asked for joint custody. Kevin also asked for joint custody. We don’t know the details of the settlement, but it looks like Christine’s $850,000 fee request is off the table.
Although the prenup is enforceable, our sources say Christine got more than what was prescribed in the doc … for the sake of settlement.
Yep, Christine got hosed, not only by her ex-husband but by her lawyers too. I thought she had all of her ducks in a row, but Christine and her lawyers were no match for Costner, Laura Wasser and Costner’s bot-farm and crisis management team. I would imagine the settlement was probably little more than twice the prenup payout, meaning $2 million. Much of her settlement will be eaten up by legal fees as well. But hey, at least she’s out. At least she’s free and she can start over. Maybe rent a little beach shack and work part-time at a jewelry shop or something. Man, she really got the short end.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Christine Baumgartner, Kevin Costner at arrivals for HIDDEN FIGURES Screening, The School of Visual Arts (SVA) Theatre, New York, NY December 10, 2016.,Image: 512870046, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS- Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Dennis Van Tine / Avalon
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- LOS ANGELES, CA – AUGUST 01: Kevin Costner and family attend the Premiere Of 20th Century Fox’s “The Art Of Racing In The Rain” at El Capitan Theatre on August 01, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.,Image: 536807501, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Los Angeles Office (PCN): +1 310.822.0419 UK Office (Avalon): +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 sales@pacificcoastnews.com, Model Release: no, Credit line: Joe Sutter/PacificCoastNews / Avalon
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- Kevin Costner arrives at the 94th Oscars® at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA, on Sunday, March 27, 2022.,Image: 673495574, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: ©A.M.P.A.S. All rights reserved., Model Release: no, Credit line: LCY / Avalon
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- Kevin Costner and Christine Baumgartner arrive on the red carpet of the 94th Oscars® at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA, on Sunday, March 27, 2022.,Image: 673507539, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: ©A.M.P.A.S. All rights reserved., Model Release: no, Credit line: Valerie Durant / Avalon
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- Kevin Costner arrives with guest on the red carpet of the 94th Oscars® at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA, on Sunday, March 27, 2022.,Image: 673539420, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Avalon Licensing Ltd. do not claim any Copyright of the attached image WORLD RIGHTS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- Christine Baumgartner and Kevin Costner arrive on the red carpet of the 94th Oscars® at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA, on Sunday, March 27, 2022.,Image: 673541629, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Avalon Licensing Ltd. do not claim any Copyright of the attached image WORLD RIGHTS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- Kevin Costner attends the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones celebrating the 94th annual Academy Awards at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 27, 2022 in Beverly Hills, California,Image: 673570618, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Kevin Costner, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
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- Kevin Costner attends the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones celebrating the 94th annual Academy Awards at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 27, 2022 in Beverly Hills, California,Image: 673587364, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Kevin Costner, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
This was a shellacking.
Kevin probably agreed to pay attorneys’ fees for both parties, which Christine jumped at. But she will be downsizing her lifestyle and expectations considerably.
That was one of the worst pre-nips I’ve seen. Never sign something so one-sided—something you might resent in the off-chance (/s) things don’t work out. And ALWAYS make sure THE house or one of the houses is PUT IN YOUR NAME! Period!
Amen! I was shocked when I read that she signed it in the first place.
Instead of beauty treatments , buy yourself some expensive jewelry with good resale value, or art or real estate. Find ways to put some money in YOUR name over the years.
That is EXACTLY what one of the wives of the founder of Kimberley-Clark did. She signed a bad pre-nup (she was the 3rd wife) so while she was the missus she bought Art, jewels etc that all had appreciable worth so when he divorced her & she got the 3 million she signed up for she auctioned off her personal property made a cool 110 million. Clearly she knew the game & played it well
I swear I would’ve just stayed married to this distant, unavailable pos and lived my life. He wasn’t around anyway. I’d just do me. Once the kids were grown, I’d save up the whole time and travel and have him fund everything. Do investments. She’s not smart at all. Now if he wanted a divorce, she’d be better off fighting him. Her problem was no planning and underestimating his attorneys and prenuptial agreement. She played it all wrong. She is vacuous and this is why she agreed to the prenup and why he chose her. She had YEARS to set herself up. Should’ve waited til she caught him inevitably cheating. Silly woman.
I wondered about this also. He’s away a lot, he’s older so will probably die first and leave you some $$, you’ve managed to ride it out this long so….? Obviously she got really bad legal advice but I wonder if also maybe she has actually fallen for another guy and wants to move onto that relationship? Alternatively, I wonder if Costner’s noise about not being as wealthy as Christine says is actually true and she was trying to get out with a good package before his money situation takes a nosedive? Didn’t he lose an absolute TON of money with Waterworld, years ago? Could one of his current projects be bleeding him out in the same way?
Imagine how awful he must be for her to have pulled the plug on her luxury life.
Well, I’m glad for her because I think this means she finally saw the writing on the wall and realized how much her lawyers had…..well, lets say misled her*. My guess is she got a couple million (less than 10, likely less than 5) and I bet he either gave her the DP for a house or just bought her a house outright, b/c that seemed like one of the sticking points for her, wanting a house near where the family had lived for so long. And she still gets the child support.
*because I genuinely think that’s what happened here; I think her lawyers convinced her it was an easy win but for the most part, the law was always on Kevin’s side. People can disagree about whether it “should” have been, but what is legal isn’t always the most ethical. I think the child support was a shock to her and i think she finally realized she was not going to overturn the prenup.
I’m guessing her threw a couple million at her plus paying her attorney fees. The bad press was not going to be worth getting dragged through court for him, or maybe he remembered they have minor children and decided to stop bad mouthing and victimizing their mother? Nah, I’m sure his team just wanted the gossip to quiet down.
I honestly don’t think he cared about the bad press.
I wonder if he said to her, “I’ll pay all your attorneys’ fees up to this point if we settle now but we’ll fight you tooth and nail on them if you don’t settle” so she decided to cut her losses and run.
He didn’t badmouth her at all. The things most damaging to her reputation came straight out of her mouth.
@tanya you mean when he claimed she spends thousands a month on plastic surgery? Etc,
He doesn’t care about the press, and his fans loved that he took her to the mat. So I don’t think that was the motivation. If anything, he was probably sick of dealing with the court stuff and he strikes me as a man who does not want to pay attys.
In any event, hope she can move on and have the life she wants.
I think you are on the right track Josephine. They both got their bills for the child support phase and discovered the only winners in a protracted legal battle are the lawyers. Settling was best for all involved.
He should of just had to give her child support.
Her lawyers really did not fare well here. I was a lawyer and my husband is still practicing. Judges can be very unpredictable and they got very unlucky with this one, but still. You have to prepare your clients for all scenarios in advance. I assume they told her that under the circumstances (*cough* biased old man judge *cough*), she was better off settling.
But they should have seen the PR and bot blitz coming. They are LA (or at least CA) divorce/family lawyers after all.
@Annel I am a lawyer too and we’re assuming that because it turned out the way it did, her lawyers didn’t inform her of the possibilities. In the end, the lawyers advise but the client’s decides how to proceed. I think it’s far more likely that they did inform her but she chose to fight. Plus they really did get a terribly unlucky draw with this judge. That’s something you can prepare for but you won’t know for sure until you file.
I really think the ages of the kids played a role in the child support amount, the youngest is 13 but the oldest is already 16. Sports and HS activities, college tuition, expenses, etc. are real or are around the corner and I am guessing are actually fully covered by Kevin, but a lot of this vacation, family event stuff struck me as the type of things the kids did when they were younger, but I’m not really buying matter one bit to a 16 year old nor will a 17 year old care next year whether they imported snow for Xmas. I suspect that a lot of the kid expenses put forward by Christine were things that she organized in the past, but frankly are reasonable to phase out as kids get older regardless of parents divorcing.
Or maybe Kevin was a jerk — and said that the kids could stay with him for ALL of the holidays, and he would foot the bills for whatever they do with him.
As many of you have said, she doesn’t seem to have been well-served by her lawyers, either with the pre-nup, since then in the interim, or now throughout the process the divorce. It would be great though, if maybe Kevin has set up trust funds for their kids – which might have made it easier for Christine to settle.
I hope Kevin’s next prospective wife has been paying attention.
The jerk was getting too much bad press in spite of bots and his PR campaign. One reason was his miserly, vindictive attitude to the mother of his children and also concerning his latest demands about Yellowstone.
I don’t think he cared about the bad press at all. It’s not like his image is based on being a super kind, really nice dude. He’s not Tom Hanks or something. I don’t think anybody looks at Kevin Costner and thinks he’s America’s Dad. I don’t think he cared about looking bad.
Wow. Kevin Costner is an ass, but I guess she really wanted to be divorced…
He was an ass 18 years ago and she really wanted to be married. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
To me, this is part of the lesson here. She was desperate for him and struck a crappy deal to get him. Anyone who wants you to sign a document like that doesn’t really want you or care about you. They will never consider you an equal or a partner.
I can’t wrap my head around those monthly sums. Whether it’s $63k or $248k A MONTH, that’s just unimaginable to me. I didn’t realize Kevin Costner had such wealth.
Same. I understand she’ll need to downsize, but have a hard time feeling sorry for anyone getting $63K a month in child support. (Her initial demand was simply ludicrous!) And why does Costner deserve to be so rich? Beyond me.
Costner had to pay ex-wife No. 1 $80 million in the first divorce 30 years ago, so he’s had dough to invest for a long time. As Becks said he’s had successful projects along the way and was reportedly making over $1 million an episode for Yellowstone. He must have made smart investments along the way, which a lot of Hollywood types don’t really do when they hit it big.
He produces a lot of work , not just for himself and he has extensive investments and real estate portfolio.
He produces a lot, directs some, so that gets him more money than just acting. He directed Dances with Wolves, for example, and according to IMDB that movie has made over 400 million worldwide, and cost 22 million to make. I read an interview with him once years ago where he talked about how much money Waterworld had made and he was like “its just accepted that it was a total financial failure and the truth is the movie has more than paid for itself and i’ve made a lot off it” – I guess just from TV royalties etc? IDK.
Prince of thieves has made almost 400 million worldwide, Bodyguard made over 400 million. I’m assuming he got a significant cut of those. he has a pretty extensive filmography and has been working steadily with big names for 30+ years, so it makes sense that he has so much money from that perspective (and yes I fell down the IMDB rabbit hole for him, lol.)
Thanks for doing the research @Becks1 !!
Damn, that’s interesting. I always thought he kinda disappeared after Bodyguard and then had a career resurgence with Yellowstone. Thank you for the deep dive, Becks1! 🙂
@wordnerd- He NEVER stopped working and did several small moderately successful projects and he always takes a piece of the back end. If it fails in the theater, it’ll probably do well on cable or streaming. People like to watch stuff that they don’t want to pay for. He made small move years ago with Joan Allen called The Upside of Anger. I LOVE that movie, it’s small but I think it’s one of the best things he’s ever done. Joan is the star but he gives a great performance.
I believe he also invested in the start up of several Native American casinos. I think, that came out in divorce one.
I have to wonder what was happening in that marriage that made her want out. I know she thought she would fare better in the divorce than this, but still. She has three kids and was living in the lap of luxury. Was Kevin a massive douche of a husband, or just kind of absent and a little neglectful? And if it’s the former, wouldn’t his absence have been welcome in some ways?
Maybe it was because “Yellowstone” is ending for him soon and he was going to be home a lot, watching “Dances With Wolves” over and over to relive his glory days and asking what was for lunch….
hahaha watching Dances on repeat.
Watching Waterworld and crying.
Yeah she got shafted. Unfortunately, she didn’t “plan” her escape once she decided to divorce him. But she is now free from that marriage, got more than the amount allocated in that ridiculous pre-nup and is hopefully getting more than the $63k/mo that judge had ordered. Hopefully both parties will now work amicably for the well-being of their children.
Yes, maybe she should have planned better. The sad things about these ridiculous unfair pre-nups is how many people probably congratulated him how lucky he was to have found a woman who “truly” loved him enough to sign such a thing.
My guess is she will be remarried by 2025, to someone insanely rich and low profile.
She had crappy lawyers who gave her crappy advice. And then took a huge chunk of her money. Honestly – she should have gone to Wasser herself before he did. I have a feeling things would have turned out a bit differently for her.
Crappy lawyers now AND then. I agree with financial protections against short-term marriages, but 18 years and three kids?! That’s a lifetime in Hollywood! That’s certainly her peak earning and childbearing years.
Why were there not clauses of “$X for each year of marriage” and “$X for each child born of the marriage” built in from the jump? Or at least renegotiated over the years!
He married someone 20 years younger than him, fine, it makes sense to protect his assets from a potential gold-digging situation. Promise her $2M and rush down the aisle. But she didn’t restructure that after the first kid? Nor the second, nor third??
Lady. Protect thyself!
What a jackass. I will never knowingly put one more dime in this skinflint’s pocket. 3 kids and 18 years and he happily trashed any notion that his kids or their Mother were nearly as important as his wallet. He has more money than he can possibly spend in 3 lifetimes. This was not a money grab situation, 18 years and 3 children certainly has the appearance of a hoped for lifetime commitment. She deserves much better. I hope when she dumps him she gets it!!!
He’s been consistent about protecting his asserts from the very beginning. That’s why the prenup was there. He’s given testimony that he was willing to pay all his kids’ expenses, but he wasn’t going to let the child support be an end-around on spousal support without a fight. Her testimony seemed to be as much about her as the kids, which reflects in the judge’s ruling.
He also has 7 kids, not just 3. Given his age I’m sure he wants to pass as much down as much as he can to all of them and any dollar that goes to Christine or lawyers is money not going to his kids.
Everything about this was ridiculous.
Her lawyers before they married, her lawyers when she filed for divorce, her agreeing to pay half of the children’s expenses/insurance, everything.
Ridiculous.
It’s been reported extensively that Costner is paying all of the kids’ expenses, including insurance, activities and schooling. The $60,000+ was basically for housing and her personal expenses.
As it should be- and I didn’t say she is paying it. I said she agreed to, as it was reported extensively when she was negotiating terms.
Housing is part of child support. It’s not like he’s around to take care of the kids in his own houses
I’m not sure what part of “a pre-nup is a legally binding contract” people are not understanding. Especially if you sign one as a 30 year old. She’s better off that 99% of women who get divorced. 🤷🏾♀️
This right here. The judge didn’t shaft her, she shafted herself by signing that ridiculous prenup. You can’t just toss out a legal document because you don’t like it, you have to prove why it shouldn’t be upheld. She probably finally realized she couldn’t nullify it and took what ever she could get. I think if she played it smarter from the beginning, with the prenup in mind, she could have gotten more.
They’re not understanding the part where the legal system in the US is so blatantly unjust towards a white lady. They want it to make sense because women in this country especially white women are conditioned to be number 2 in command after white men. Their entire sense of worth and value is wrapped up in the belief that their white supremacy and the hierarchy they ascribe to, benefit from, enable and perpetuate will not let them down. I see wealthy white women daily express shock and disgust when they are asked to follow the rules. It just does not compute for them. The level of entitlement and the firm belief that rules are for lesser people and do not apply to them is deeply conditioned and will lead them to do really stupid things. Then there’s a part of me that’s hoping this lady isn’t satisfied with her settlement and writes a book, does an interview to earn her coin and dgaf about any NDAs.
There is a strange need with some people here to act like grown woman are helpless babies who are always being taken advantage of. She made bad decisions choices, she signed ( willingly) a prenup that was one sided because she wanted to get married, he did not . ( To the person who spoke about his next wife, I don’t think he wants to). She decided to divorce him, didn’t think it out and went about it the wrong way. She made bad choices. I doubt Laura Wasser would take her case because she probably took one look at the prenup and said, “Nah, girl”.
Precisely.
She is/was a grown adult- and is now in the find out phase.
💯
THANK YOU!! Everyone’s saying how much she’s being hosed, but she’s the one who signed the prenup, and if her attorneys weren’t smart enough to tell her there should be clauses based on the length of the marriage maybe she’s got a case there.
I mean, I know it’s less than their lifestyle, but prenups can be renegotiated right? Maybe he said no, but it’s still on her for signing the original.
If you watched SATC, Charlotte got her prenup from Trey, Miranda read it and said it was pretty standard ( it kind of sucked) and Charlotte was outraged that she wasn’t getting her worth. She went back to Bunny and told her that she was worth 1 million, not the 500k they were offering. She just should have said , “Come on Kevin, let’s negotiate, we can put together a schedule where I get vested every 2yrs and every kid.” Something, anything but I wouldn’t have signed that and if I did, I would have figured out how to build some assets that were just in my name.
Yeah this is what I don’t get either. She willingly signed it, no one forced her to. As you pointed out she was 30 years old so an adult. It was a terrible prenup, we all agree, but she signed it. Her entire exit strategy seemed to be asking for an insanely high amount for child support and invalidate a prenup she willingly signed. And either she didn’t listen to her lawyers or they were giving her terrible advice. Kevin definitely could have afforded the child support she was initially asking for but deep down she had to know she would not be getting it. Glad they somehow managed to settle, my guess is she was tired of the legal mind games and maybe realized dragging it out wouldn’t be beneficial for her or the kids.
Whew. She went through all that to get less than she deserved. She really wanted out of that marriage and seeing how he acted during these proceedings shows a glimpse of some of what she must have gone through in the marriage. I wouldn’t discount her wanting to end their marriage after going through covid quarantine. We know that so many marriages ended/suffered after all that went down. Good for her, she’s free now.
I still think she should call Andy Cohen and get that Housewives money.
I don’t get why people don’t understand that she WILLINGLY signed a legally binding contract to get less than what she should ask for. This is totally self-inflicted. He’s cheap AF, but it’s not like he didn’t tell her. A pre-nup is a contract and you don’t get to go “Uhhh, I don’t like the terms anymore” and then it all goes away. She should have rejected the prenup and not signed it, if he wouldn’t renegotiate then she shouldn’t have married him. She knew how much he was worth and accepted a BS prenup.
And I don’t understand how some people can be so naive as to take a contract on its face as proof of fairness. Plenty of people get steamrolled into signing things they don’t truly understand. Could she have been smarter? Probably. Does that mean she deserves to get taken advantage of? No. And that’s the part that matters. So much with the victim blaming.
I hope she moves in with her billionaire neighbor and waves at Costner every time she sees him.
That may be what has him so pressed. LOL
My guess is 5. He tossed her 5 million & she jumped. Just like he handed her a pre-nup and said sign or no deal & she jumped. It’s chump change for 18 years but better than what she signed up for financially. Like I said, I loved him in No Way Out & I will never watch it again. But I won’t watch Usual Suspects again either. It’s getting rough out here for a movie watcher with a conscience.
“It’s getting rough out here for a movie watcher with a conscience.”
RIGHT?!?!?!!?
$5M is chump change now? I know nurses, teachers, and nonprofit executive directors who don’t make that in 18 years. And yes, they have kids too.
I think when he made roughly 200 million during their 18 year marriage that 5, So 5, which is my conjecture, is a lot less than 100 since CA is a duel property state & 1/2 is usually the deal especially after 10 years.. I can’t imagine going into a marriage signing away your rights, but she wanted to be Mrs. Costner no matter what. Whatever he paid her, he didn’t pay her legal fees so that will take a chunk out of what she receives.
Seriously? She’s getting MILLIONS that most of us will never see. Probably a free home in a ritzy area, and her monthly take is something entire families survive on for a year. She signed a bad pre nup and while he may be a cheap jerk, he protected his money. You know like people with money do, like YOU would do if you had that much money. I don’t feel bad for her, she’ll be living quite large because he is still paying all of his kids expenses she’s basically getting “child ” support to do what she wants. Poor her, how will she stay out of the poor house.
( Insert eye roll).
I think a lot of the sympathy for her stems from the fact that she supported his career for 18 years and raised his 3 children, probably largely as the sole parent around much of the time. I know people think she had tons of help/staff, but what she did as a parent still allowed him to thrive and not have to think about the kids or their needs. Her work as the SAHM was always uncompensated. Sure, she lived in luxury, but that’s not the same as having your own earnnings to do with as you please (and take with you). I think she was a fool to sign the prenup and is paying the price for wanting him so desperately, but I do feel very much for all of the women out there whose contributions to the partnership are so disrespected and undervalued.
I feel these comments are missing the point. Of course it is not chump change to regular people like us. But yes for people with their lifestyle 1 Mio is nothing. And regarding child support she will need the 60000 to rent a house and hire staff to more or less maintain the lifestyle the kids are accustomed too also when they are with her. He earned easily around 200 million in the 19 years they were married, and he was able to do that because he did not have to take care of the children. Now in most legislations, Christine would be entitled to half of what the family earned in that time minus expenses. So yes compared to that of course 1 million is chump change. A lot of European legislations put limits on what is allowed to be put in prenups, if they go too much against this 50/50 split principle they are not valid. This is done exactly because they realize there is a power imbalance at work.
Maybe I’m old school, but when you divorce somebody, you cannot expect to live the same exact lifestyle as them. She’s still going to live an incredibly privileged life but she won’t be living like Kevin Costner any more. She’s going to be fine. He’s kids are nearly grown, she’s getting $63,000 a month, and she’s getting more than that crappy prenup she signed allowed her to. She’s been living extremely well for 20 years and now she needs to downsize like most people do after a divorce.
If you are going to marry someone old enough to be your father who far exceeds you in financial resources please don’t sign a prenup that on all outside appearances leaves you with practically nothing for the sake of trying to make it appear you aren’t in it for the money. Even if you do, renegotiate a post nup. Christine Baumgartner and Pilar Sanders are the most prime example of what happens when you do this. Pilar is what happens when you go against attorney advice to settle for a better deal. I foresee Christine marrying Costner’s friend in the next 18 months.
At the end of the day, I still feel she got sort of shafted because the prenup contained clauses (like moving out within weeks) that are illegal where I live.
That said, anyone not married to a guy like Kevin, who gets a divorce from someone like him, wins. Congratulations to freedom and the next steps
This whole thing was awful, and a very good representation of why women stay in abusive relationships. Including the attitudes expressed in a lot of these comments. I’d much rather be part of the solution to dismantle the patriarchy than one if it’s victim blaming foot soldiers is all I’ll say.
I agree with you. I doubt this marriage was easy for her.
I’d also like to stop the gold digger narrative. Men like Costner get away with being difficult because of their wealth, fame, and power. They can get young attractive women for these reasons, not for their shining personalities. She didn’t have to marry him, but he didn’t have to marry her either. He didn’t have to have kids with her. He wanted all of the benefits of her youth but didn’t want to pay for those years once she left. She probably couldn’t have had a regular career with a husband who was gone more often than not and I suspect he wouldn’t have allowed that anyway.
Yep, she signed that prenup, unfortunately for her. I hope the rest of her life is better for her.
Same!
@kate 👏👏👏
How does one get hosed when they attempt to change the terms of a prenup that they read and signed, but whatever….
100% agree.
Christine stayed with him for 18 years. ( obviously life wasn’t so bad)
He gave her PARENTS $5,000.00/ month. ( And she expected him to continue giving her PARENTS that money AFTER she filed for divorce?! IMO, Christine had someone on the side & got caught. Her spending had to be disclosed to determine support) (that she spent $18,000.00 on clothing/ cosmetic procedures.)
She willfully signed that prenup years ago & never thought to have it amended & that is on her! A prenip is legally binding…has NOTHING to do with the fact that she is a white, female! I don’t know if she is that stupid to fight a LEGALLY BINDING agreement or her attorneys blew smoke up her a$$…
Kevin will provide well for those children but he does not have to provide the same lifestyle he gave her when they were MARRIED.
Thank you! Oh and she “supported” his career. He was Kevin Costner before he met her and he was going to continue to be Kevin Costner if he never me her. The first wife is the one who did the heavy lifting with him and his career. They act like she was working a job so he could become who he was and cooking , cleaning and doing all the work with their kids. Like she didn’t have a housekeeper, a chef and nannies. She’s still the Mom and it’swork but I don’t think she was slaving away and suffering the way people are trying to make it out to be . Now she was abused also? This carrying on because a woman who was married to a Wealthy man screwed herself and misplayed her hand now gets to live as just a rich woman is so dumb. When you get divorced your life style changes and no your ex is NOT required to keep you in the same lifestyle. He’s STILL paying for everything for their kids. I’ll save my sympathies and whining for the spouses who do all the work with no help, have to chase their ex down for support or who support a spouse so they can become something, get dumped and then have to fight to get some of the money that they put out back ( see lots of Drs. spouses). The white woman tears here are just disturbing.
I agree with you. This was one of summer’s top stories; and for the kids’ sake, I wish Kevin would have found his inner graceous before, even if she went full-on frontal on him. She was not a frugal little lady who saves his husband’s pennies and drives to the school run. I’m sure she loves her kids and looked after them, but it’s been accounted for that Kevin paid for multiple house staffs. So, he was taking care of relieving her from heavy lifting, and all she had to do was to issue indications for someone to have it done. There’s evidence of how she was also busy burning money at shops and cosmetic surgeons clinics… He supported her parents and financed business ventures for her, so no… He’s a bitter, flawed human being who was ruthless from pain and hurt ego; but he also seems to have done his pov’s best for her individual well-being. If anything, he’s the b*stard she decided to marry under a sorry prenup.
This is mostly a lesson in caution to marriages with huge financial gaps. Be careful about who you marry, be aware of how they view money and relationships, and be aware of what you agree to on a prenup. She wasn’t a young kid when she married him. She was thirty and had resources to consider her options. Unfortunately, she got outplayed. It sucks to lose decades of your youth to a relationship you regretted later, but that is a risk with any relationship.
I feel like her greed came out to play in front of this judge at the beginning and it was just all bad for her after that.
100%
He’s such a POS. His kids will remember how he treated his mom when they’re older.
IMO She deserved to have a house paid for by Kevin outright. One hundred percent. She deserved it. I disagree about his kids remembering how he treated mom. I’m sure they are torn. Mom clearly has a boyfriend. I think once she fell for him it was the impetus to get out of a dying marriage because Kevin was more engaged in his career than her. The guy loaned her a lot of money, and she went on vacation with him with her children only months after leaving Kevin. The vacation was paid for by her “friend.” I wonder how the kids feel about mom’s friend so quickly after separation.
Those kids love both their parents, and Kevin is a good actor, as he proved on the stand in the hearing. (Ugh!) So he probably gives the kids a spiel about taking care of them, but won’t be run over by lawyers.
And teens are a whole different ballgame. It can be a difficult time raising them even for parents who are still together. But don’t just assume those kids are going to completely take their mother’s side. It’s more complicated than that when kids love both, especially two teen boys who probably idolize their father.
She signed a prenup a legally binding document. Now Kevin Costner is a jerk because he didnt rip up the prenup and give in to all her demands. As the media often reports in a one sided manner, all men are rapists, violent and jerks, no matter what the woman does. One sided stories create all types of scenarios. How can someone be a POS for getting upset when the wife who filed for divorce wants multi millions of dollars and benefits more than what she agreed to in the prenup. Seems like she came at him like a wrecking ball demanding anything and everything.
I do family law for a living. I have for over 15 years. I have litigated mediated done collaborative divorce written prenups was a staff attorney argued appeals and worked for the court
She was not, I wager, hosed by her lawyers. This WAS her intended outcome.
My issue remains that parts of their prenup were illegal where I live, and Kevin was able to uphold an unfair contract. Especially because a prenup is binding and the US works on precedence (ie, you can use the outcome of Kevin’s 2nd divorce to argue paying less child support), it’s ridiculous that she was forced to court to get a fairer deal.
The NLs has a 6-month timeframe to move out of the family home. The judge here would want lists from both sides as to what CB wanted to remove and KC keep: having KC okay everything that CB was not actually guaranteed by law (toiletries, clothing, jewelry) takes away some of her rights. Child support and alimony (in her case up to five years) is also guaranteed by law, and based on a formula. If he has eye-watering amounts of money, the child support is also ridiculously high. Gifting a spouse 1.4 million dollars in a prenup doesn’t supersede alimony. In the NLs affairs don’t have any bearing on a prenup. KC suggesting that she had a lover and earned a salary/ gifts from the lover, which beyond gross, has no bearing on what he would owe her for their marriage and divorce unlike what he argued in court.
But all that is in the NL, not California. So whether anything was illegal in the NL has no bearing on its legality in CA. The prenup here was legal.
Becks1, I know the law is different in CA than where I live, though I wish in this case it weren’t. My brain stays stuck on the legality of allowing a less-powerful party to sign a terrible contract. I’m pretty sure we both would look at someone like KC and run instead of signing what he demanded…in one of your earlier posts this year you mentioned that it’s difficult to break a prenup and a lot of people (including myself when looking at this one) don’t understand that. I just feel (admittedly, this is clearly not covered by CA law) that given so many people have no idea what they’re really signing, it would make sense to have a basic set of rights in place for prenups like most Western countries do have.
I never really understood the sympathy for her, I think they both behaved badly. She was trying to invalidate a prenup she willingly signed, no one put a gun to her head. She was 30 when she married, not 18 so she was an adult, not some starry eyed teenager. She clearly didn’t have an exit strategy, her whole strategy seemed to hinge on invalidating the prenup. She had to scramble to find a place to live, her child support was greatly reduced after she asked for an exorbitant amount. Sure, Kevin could have afforded it but it’s almost like she ignored the entire prenup. Predictably the judge enforced it and ignored her legal shenanigans. Then she complained about not being able to maintain the same lifestyle and about getting a job. I realize her getting a job may be difficult at her age but she could easily get a hosting/reality TV type of gig to help pay the bills if she wanted to if she capitalizes on the attention she’s gotten during the divorce coverage.
And Kevin, he was clearly angry at being dumped and who knows, maybe she did leave him for another man. That definitely stung but he looks like such a stingy and miserable person to shortchange his ex-wife and the mother of his kids. I know it’s because he was pissed after how much $$$ he had to shell out after his first divorce and well we can’t say he wasn’t prepared this time around. But he has a right to protect his assets as do all people when getting divorced. He still could have given her a house though. When I learned he literally owns houses just to make movies in (he doesn’t even LIVE in them?) I was like you can’t spare one for your ex-wife???
For both their messy sakes, glad they settled so the kids can start to heal.
I’m no fan of his but enough with the defense that she didn’t understand what she willingly signed. She was 30 years old, a college graduate and the prenup was written in her first language. Yes, he’s a punishing cheapskate but she has no one to blame but herself for signing such a ridiculously unfair legally binding document and for not renegotiating a post-nup after having his children.
I didn’t follow this divorce that closely, so maybe somebody can clarify some things for me. Did Christine really arrive to court in a limo? Also, I just read that each of their kids has their own personal assistant to manage their schedules. Is that true? I wonder if Kevin had a say in the luxuries that the kids had/have, or was that all coming from Christine. I just don’t know if I see him caring about the lavish parties and things like that.
I’m not a fan of either, but listening to what she did and didn’t do about this divorce made me dislike her. We have NO idea how much money Kevin gave her in the end to settle, so how can anyone say anything about how awful he was for giving her so little? Frankly, I would give Kevin points for settling and giving her MORE money that she would’ve gotten if she continued. He did not have to do that. I hope we don’t have to hear anymore about it from her, let their kids have a little privacy about this whole mess.
Sheesh, my ex-SIL had more game and planned her exit better than Christine.
Took unprescribed Adderall for months to lose an excessive amount of weight in order to look ill, joined a battered wives support group (my BIL never laid a finger on her) six months before she filed and planted vicious and salacious rumors about him at the country club. It was some Gone Girl level stuff.