“The Postman” always gets served with divorce papers twice? Kevin Costner and Christine Baumgartner’s contentious uncoupling drama rivals any plot on “Yellowstone.” The popular Paramount Network series even gets a shoutout in the second set of divorce documents Costner has had to scrutinize in his lifetime, with his wife of 18 years accusing him of deciding not to film another season because he saw a better opportunity to further line his pockets and seized it. “He chose not to in order to pursue the ‘Horizon’ project,'” Baumgartner said in legal filings, per Insider. “He essentially re-invested his compensation as an actor into this new endeavor that will certainly increase his earnings exponentially.”
The reason Costner’s business moves mattered to Baumgartner so much was that they affected what her potential child support payments would be. She ended up being awarded almost $130,000 a month to ensure that the three children she and Costner share — Cayden, Hayes, and Grace — won’t experience a reduction in their standard of living.
Baumgartner also wanted to keep living in the $145 million Santa Barbara mansion that she and Costner once shared. In his divorce declaration, which was obtained by Radar, Costner’s argument that Baumgartner should be evicted from the property included a reference to his first divorce from Cindy Silva. Baumgartner lost that battle, per TMZ, apparently because Costner’s first acrimonious experience with ending a marriage made him realize that he has to have a powerful prenup in place to protect his assets.
Kevin Costner’s first divorce was a costly endeavor
Kevin Costner revealed that his living situation also wasn’t ideal after he and his first wife, Cindy Silva, initiated divorce proceedings in 1994. “Upon separation, I found myself without a home base and unable to live in my own home,” he revealed in his second divorce declaration. “I never wanted this to happen again.”
Costner and Silva were college sweethearts who had been married for 16 years when they decided to call it quits. At the time, Costner had established himself as one of Hollywood’s most in-demand leading men, appearing in future classics such as “Field of Dreams” and “The Bodyguard.” He also starred in and directed t he Oscar-winning film “Dances with Wolves.” But it seems that he didn’t ask Silva to sign a prenup before he was blessed with so much success, as he was reportedly ordered to pay her $80 million. This caused Costner’s net worth to take a big hit and earned him a spot on the 2008 Forbes list of Hollywood’s costliest divorces.
According to Variety, Costner was getting paid $1.3 million per episode of “Yellowstone” when he exited the series, so today, he’d have to film over 60 episodes of the show to recoup the financial loss from his first divorce. According to legal docs obtained by People, Costner promised Christine Baumgartner a relatively paltry $1.5 million in their prenup. However, she didn’t want to accept the payout outright, as doing so would preclude her from challenging the prenup.
Kevin Costner was hit with cheating rumors
In its 1994 cover story about Kevin Costner and Cindy Silva’s divorce, People reported that Costner had garnered a reputation for being unfaithful, whether it was deserved or not. There were rumors that he had cheated on Silva with a nightclub receptionist while on location shooting “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” and with a hula performer named Michelle Amaral while filming “Waterworld” in Hawaii. Another woman accused Costner of attempting to unbutton her coat in a limo without her consent. “It’s almost like he thought, ‘Hey, I’m getting to be a big star, let’s see what I can do,'” she said. A friend of the couple also said that Silva was starting to struggle with her husband having a job that required him to film love scenes with other women, which was not something she signed up for when she and Costner began dating as students at Cal State Fullerton.
Parade asked Costner about the rumors of his infidelity in 1995, and he said of Amaral, “I never even spoke to the woman on the telephone.” He also denied having an affair with Angie Everheart.
Costner and Silva had three children together, and it seems they were aware of the reports about their dad. “It was hard on Cindy and our children,” he said. “It didn’t help things. The only thing it did was hurt. The collapse of my marriage was the hardest thing of all for me.”
