Kevin Costner’s had more than his fair share of upheaval lately. He was set to swagger into the sunset as John Dutton in Yellowstone after the end of Season 5, but no one seems to know if those episodes will ever film. Even Costner seemed unclear on that detail while revealing (in divorce court) that he might be taking producers to court.
Speaking of the legal system, Costner is likely tired of being in courtroom-adjacent settings for his divorce proceedings. Despite having a prenuptial agreement in place, Costner and Christine Baumgartner have filed multiple rounds of documents about their child support battle. Costner still-sort of scored some victories with Baumgartner being ordered to vacate their marital home via the terms of the prenup. However, he has still been ordered to pay $129,755 in monthly child support, which is a lot, yes, but it’s much less than the $248,000 figure that Baumgartner was reported to request. Previously, PEOPLE noted that the divorce filings involved “nearly 9,000 pages of forensic accounting documents so far,” and now, Costner has realized that his legal bills are astronomical. Even worse, he believes, is that Baumgartner wants him to pay $885,000 for her legal fees, too:
In a court document obtained by PEOPLE — filed Monday in the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Barbara — the 68-year-old Oscar winner’s legal team argues the amount requested by Christine, 49, is “unreasonable” and “nothing short of outrageous.”
The filing claims Christine has already received “$405,000 in fees, including an award of $300,000 in legal fees ($200,000 in attorney’s fees and $100,000 in forensic accounting fees) on July 12” and “remov(ed) $105,000 for fees from Kevin’s accounts.”
Previously, Costner alleged that Baumgartner was using child support money (at least partially, although a lot of it) for plastic surgery. He reportedly named a wild figure, claiming that she was having $188,500 in plastic surgery procedures per month. Is that even possible? The divorce proceedings themselves, it seems, lie far beyond that kind of maintenance.
(Via People)
