Kevin Costner’s ex was hoping for ‘favorable settlement’ before getting ‘kick out’ order
Hollywood star Kevin Costner’s estranged wife Christine Baumgartner may have been hoping to reach a “favorable settlement” in her divorce case by re-assessing the terms of her pre-nuptial agreement.
In an exclusive interview with Daily Express US, Holly Davis of Kirker Davis LLP explained how Baumgartner, 49, was hoping to debate the validity of her pre-nuptial agreement with the Yellowstone star, 68, in order to remain at their beachfront property in California.
Davis has lots of experience with high net divorce cases and said: “Christine was attempting to re-negotiate the move-out portion of her premarital agreement and the spousal support term by dressing it up as a child support issues that was outstanding and not anticipated under the terms of the premarital agreement.
“She was seeing if it would work, and Costner wisely got a Court to interpret the issue and order Christine to vacate.
“Christine may have been seeing how far Costner would go in the eyes of the public to kick a mom out of her house, thinking she may get a more favorable settlement offer from Costner if she went to the press first and we see now that the strategy did not work on the move out term or spousal support term.”
Davis’ words come after a judge ordered Baumgartner to leave the property by the end of this month.
The former handbag designer had previously reportedly asked to stay until the end of August with Costner requesting her departure by the end of July 13.
Additionally, Costner saw his child support extended to $129,000 per month with Baumgartner said to be “relieved” by the decision, even though the amount falls far short of the $248,000 she was asking for.
Addressing whether the amount Baumgartner had been requesting was reasonable, Davis said it was “hard to say” without seeing how much the family spent before the divorce.
Davis continued: “By revealing what Kevin Costner’s annual income was, Christine’s camp was attempting to anchor her financial requests and show that there are funds to pay them.
“In order to be successful, Christine will have to show that her child support request is not just for the maintenance of her lifestyle and is mostly for the children.”
Although Baumgartner would be permitted to some things for herself, Davis said the request should be related to “parenting” or specifically the children.
Baumgartner has weighed their children’s costs at 60 percent of the household spend per month.
Attorney Davis said it was “customary” in a divorce settlement to break down the child support payments in this way, looking at the overall household spend per month and the number of children.
“It keeps the monthly child support number in relation to the monthly spend of the overall family, and it’s obviously less than the true total because it should be going towards the children and not the divorcing parent,” Davis said.
