Kevin Costner Reportedly ‘Hit The Roof’ Over His Estranged Wife’s Cozy Friendship With The Tech Bro Renting Out Their Guesthouse
Forget Yellowstone, Kevin Costner’s real-life divorce drama is the stuff great TV drama is made of.
The actor is currently in the middle of a messy split with his wife of 18 years, model Christine Baumgartner, who filed for divorce last month. The two have since been in a heated battle over ownership of Costner’s sprawling Santa Barbara estate — a $145 million beachfront property with its own baseball field and horseback riding trails that Costner designed as his dream home. Baumgartner refuses to vacate the compound despite a prenup agreement and the pair are now in a kind of legal standoff over the 10-acre residence.
But the house reportedly caused even more drama between the couple before their breakup.
New details into their strained marriage reveal that, at one point, Costner got into a heated altercation with a tech entrepreneur who rented the family’s guesthouse for nearly a year. Daniel Starr is a multi-millionaire and real estate investment guru who made his fortune off video game streaming services. He signed a yearlong lease in June 2022 to stay in the couple’s beachfront guesthouse for $60,000 a month. “Daniel was really happy living in the house. It’s right on the beach, and he has a 4-year-old son who he wanted to feel settled,” a source with inside knowledge of the situation, told the Sun.
Unfortunately, relations grew sour once Costner jetted off to film his hit TV show. Baumgartner and Starr allegedly developed a close friendship with reports claiming the model would visit the guesthouse “almost daily.”
“After he moved in, he became close friends with Chris and Kevin. They’d hang out together with their kids. But Kevin was always away filming, so Chris must have been lonely,” the source said. But a few months after Starr moved in, he and Baumgartner had some kind of falling out. “Kevin got wind of it,” the insider claimed. “There was a row between him and Daniel, and things escalated from there.”
The only reasons the source gave for the broken friendship were that Starr was a “respectful guy,” and Baumgartner “didn’t like [his] attitude towards their friendship.” When he tried to resolve the matter legally, first by getting his lawyers involved, then by refusing to vacate the premises before his lease was up, Costner lost it. “Daniel thought really highly of Kevin and thought he was an excellent father to his kids. But Kevin hit the roof and sided with his wife,” the insider claimed.
Starr moved out three months before his lease was up and Baumgartner filed for divorce not long after.
