Friday was a very successful day for Kevin Costner in court. The judge found in his favor and agreed that he should only have to pay his previous wife a child support payment of $63,209 per month. This is a significant reduction from what his ex-wife had requested.
On Friday, you will be responsible for making the child support installments. Christine Baumgartner was shocked when the judge imposed a decrease in the amount of child support she was had to pay, but she did not show any other emotion. As for Costner, he gave off the impression of being pleased with the court ruling. After a brief consultation with his legal team, Mr. Costner was led out of the courthouse in Santa Barbara County while surrounded by law enforcement officers.
Baumgartner exited the building with her legal representatives, and when ET sought her reaction, she declined to provide one. Amidst an acrimonious dispute on the amount of child support that the Yellowstone actor, who is now 68 years old, should pay, the court has temporarily ordered Costner to pay Baumgartner $129,000 every month. In the beginning, he was prepared to pay $51,900 per month, but Baumgartner wanted him to pay $248,000 per month instead. Then, just a week ago, Baumgartner returned to court and asked for the monthly amount of $129,000 to be raised to $161,000 each month.
Baumgartner, who is now 49 years old, had maintained that it was essential for their children to have a “comparable lifestyle” to the one that Baumgartner and Costner had when they were still a married. They have a daughter named Grace, who is 13, and two boys named Cayden and Hayes. Cayden is 16 and Hayes is 14. Baumgartner initiated the divorce proceedings in May, after an 18-year marriage.
Baumgartner has said that Costner “steadfastly refuses” to pay child support that is adequate to cover the children’s legitimate requirements. In the past, Costner has characterized this assertion as “demonstrably false and purposely inflammatory.” Baumgartner and Costner, according to Costner’s insistence, “simply differ on what’reasonable needs’ means in the context of child support.”
In the end, the actor and director made a suggestion that he should only be required to pay her $63,209 a month in child support. He added that the monthly sum properly covers all of the children’s reasonable requirements. And the judge sided with them.
While being questioned by his counsel on Friday, Costner reminisced about his career in Hollywood while being questioned by the attorney. At one point, the attorney for Baumgartner intervened with Costner and complained, stating that Costner was elaborating on his responses too much. After hearing the argument, Costner exploded, saying, “This is 19 years of my life that I am talking about, how can I answer succinctly?” After the judge’s intervention, Costner was given permission to proceed.
In his testimony, the actor said that his “biggest concern” was the possibility that the judge would compel him to pay child support regardless of whether or not the children really need it. He also discussed his worry about running out of money, which is partly due to the fact that he is not an actor who is renowned for performing in sequels and that he only participates in projects that he is passionate about and/or has self-financed.
“I will always take care of my family, but that number [Baumgartner’s child support request] is grossly inflated,” Costner said while on the evidence.
He stated that the family “wants for nothing” and that they live a “incredible life,” but he argued that they are economically prudent even though he made those statements. To illustrate his argument, Costner spoke to the fact that his son drove a Range Rover that is 15 years old, explaining that he and Baumgartner did not believe in purchasing a new vehicle for their son.
Additionally, Costner said that he does not accept a big income from the production firms that he owns. He revealed that Tig Productions brought in $26,000 per year, whereas Territory Productions brought in $200,000 per year. According to his testimony, he has a lot riding on the outcome of his most recent passion project, a Western movie called Horizon: An American Saga, which he funded, directed, and starred in. According to Costner, the film Horizon was originally scheduled to be released later this year; however, he has subsequently been forced to push back the release date to some point in 2024 owing to the continuing strike in Hollywood and the divorce dispute. There are a total of four episodes in the film series Horizon.
During the course of the two-day hearing, matters came to a head when Baumgartner maintained that Costner’s paycheck from Yellowstone should be included as part of his cash flow and should be taken into consideration when determining the amount of child support that Costner should pay.
But at the hearing and in the papers filed with the court, Costner contended that his wage on Yellowstone, which was allegedly over one million dollars each episode, was a “absolute fluke” that “provided Kevin with an unusually high level of income — a level he has never before had.”
ET was able to get copies of court filings in which Costner’s accountants indicated that the actor’s monthly cash flow averaged $1,308,920 for the 30 months that ended on June 30, 2023. This figure included the actor’s revenue from Yellowstone. If Costner did not have the revenue from Yellowstone, his accountants came to the conclusion that Costner’s monthly cash flow would be $468,136 per month for the 30 months ending June 30, 2023.
“The enormous difference in those figures,” the court filings continued to claim, “establishes Kevin’s point, i.e., that Yellowstone was a once-in-a-lifetime event, and that going forward, his income will not reach that level — ever.” Kevin’s point was that his income would not reach that level going ahead since Yellowstone was a once-in-a-lifetime event.
The question of whether or not Costner should be required to pay Baumgartner’s attorney’s fees will be decided at a later date by the court.