Kevin Costner Hopes to ‘Hold On to as Much as He Can’ amid Expensive Divorce (Exclusive Source)

Kevin Costner is seeking to retain most of his assets amid his expensive divorce from estranged wife Christine.

As his divorce battle with Christine, 49, heats up, a source says in the new issue of PEOPLE that the 68-year-old Yellowstone star “wants to hold on to as much as he can.”

Court documents filed by both sides in recent weeks show a legal fight taking shape as she seeks a slice of her estranged husband’s estimated $250 million fortune.

In papers filed in California’s Superior Court June 16, Christine (née Baumgartner), who is entitled to a settlement of just $1.4 million under the terms of the couple’s prenup, asked for $248,000 per month in child support.

In the filing, Christine, 49, alleges the figure “is less than the amount needed to maintain the children in their accustomed lifestyle” and is requesting that Costner also pay 100% of private-school tuition, extracurricular activities/sports and health-care expenses for their three kids: Cayden, 16, Hayes, 14, and Grace, 13.

She argues that the money will help her set up a “suitable separate household” so she can move out of the sprawling Santa Barbara compound, worth an estimated $145 million, where she and the Field of Dreams star have lived since they wed.

Explains a Christine source, “She wants Kevin to provide what they are used to.” Their extraordinary lifestyle, she said, included trips on private jets and visits to luxurious hotels.

In her filing, she detailed Kevin’s income (nearly $20 million for 2022), as well as the family’s expenses ($6.6 million, including $718,323 on credit cards and more than $800,000 in gifts).

The child support Christine seeks is more than six times the $38,000 a month Kevin has offered. The two-time Oscar winner — who, according to a source, didn’t want to get a divorce in the first place — submitted his own filing a week prior.

He alleged Christine, a former handbag designer, has refused to vacate their home since filing for divorce, despite a clause in their prenup which he claims requires her to do so within 30 days.

“Christine’s agreement to move out was and is unconditional,” Kevin stated in the documents, which noted that after his 1994 divorce from his first wife, Cindy Silva, “he found himself without a home base… He never wanted that to happen again.” He reportedly paid Silva an $80 million settlement.

Her sky-high child support request isn’t unusual for a family with that much wealth, experts say. (Child support can’t be specified in a California prenup.) “The bottom line is what is in the children’s best interests,” family lawyer Randy Kessler, who does not represent Kevin or Christine tells PEOPLE. “The court must consider their standard of living while their parents were married.”

Kevin and Christine are due in court July 5 for a case management conference. While their case is “contentious,” notes Beverly Hills divorce attorney Daniel Jaffe, who also doesn’t represent either party, the chances of a trial in court are slim. “All of us who handle cases where there’s a lot of money, we probably settle 90, 95 percent of them.”

A rep for the Upside of Anger actor confirmed to PEOPLE on May 2 that he and his wife of 18 years were breaking up after she filed for divorce. Christine listed their date of separation as April 11, and cited irreconcilable differences.

“It is with great sadness that circumstances beyond his control have transpired which have resulted in Mr. Costner having to participate in a dissolution of marriage action,” his rep said at the time.

A source then told PEOPLE that divorce wasn’t Costner’s idea: “If he could change the situation, he would.”