Kevin Costner’s estranged wife Christine Baumgartner flees LA with two of their kids

Kevin Costner‘s estranged wife Christine Baumgartner was seen leaving Los Angeles via LAX airport on Thursday with two of their three kids, amid the celebrity couple’s divorce battle. 

The 49-year-old handbag designer, TMZ reported, was witnessed being dropped off at the airport and entering the terminal with coffee and luggage in hand.

The former couple share three children together, Cayden 16, Hayes, 14, and Grace 13. (Costner also has four adult children from previous relationships.)

The trip isn’t expected to be a long one, according to the outlet, as Baumgartner is due back in court in Santa Barbara Wednesday for a hearing about the prenuptial agreement in the split.

Costner has claimed the $248,000 a month in child support his estranged wife is demanding is partly to fund her own plastic surgery expenses.

Baumgartner – who reportedly ‘blindsided’ Costner, 68, when she handed him divorce papers – called the requested amount ‘less than the amount needed to maintain the children in their accustomed lifestyle,’ reported People Magazine earlier this month.

Costner’s forensic accountant now claims in new court documents obtained by TMZ that the expenses listed among the $248,000 include more than $100,000 in cosmetic surgery for Baumgartner.

It also includes thousands of dollars in boutique shopping, huge ATM withdrawals and other expenses ‘not to do with child support.’

Among Christine’s listed expenses are credit card bills and her own attorney fees and construction loans. 

Costner’s accountant says these are ‘one-time expenses that have nothing to do with child support.’

The documents claims Costner has been paying all of the children’s expenses and will continue to do so, saying the amount he is currently paying is the reasonable amount –  $51,940 a month.

Documents from earlier this month show that Costner pulled in just over $19.5 million in 2022 with the family’s expenses listed as being $6.6 million for the same year. The family’s net worth is put at $7.5 million, according to the People report. 

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Baumgartner has recently signaled her willingness to leave the mansion they previously shared,  but only as long as she has guarantees that her soon-to-be ex won’t leave her penniless.

She  has agreed to leave the $145 million mansion on the condition that Costner, 68, agrees to pay any support and fees that a judge orders at an upcoming hearing, according to court filings obtained by RadarOnline.

In the documents, Baumgartner agrees to vacate the premises on August 31 of this year as long as Costner complies ‘with whatever support and fee orders that the court makes on July 12,’ the date of the next hearing in their divorce proceedings.

That arrangement would give her 50 days to find a new place to live and to move in, whereas the prenuptial agreement reportedly stated that she would leave the original home within 30 days of a divorce filing. 

She wrote that she was hesitant to leave her home without having a plan and funding in place, if only for the sake of her children, whom she doesn’t want to have to move multiple times.

Baumgartner claimed that ‘Kevin wants me to rent [a] place without [a] financial plan in place. However, [I] have our three children to think about. It is contrary to their best interests to commit to rental that [I] may not be able to afford, particularly as that would ultimately lead to multiple relocations.

‘My goal has been and continues to be maintaining as much stability for our children as possible, which includes having the proper resources and plan in place so that [I] can establish [a] stable home for them, rather than making temporary and inconsistent housing arrangements,’ she continued.

Costner was not only the primary breadwinner, but the only person making money recently, and Baumgartner says in her filing that she has no income.

The Yellowstone star was on the hook to help his estranged wife relocate per their prenuptial agreement, but it was a relatively paltry sum for their lifestyle.

Costner would have paid her a reported $1 million to find a new home, but with California’s elevated home prices — particularly if she tried to stay near Costner — she may have had difficulty finding something similar to the luxury she and her children are accustomed to.

According to RadarOnline, Costner has deposited $1 million in Baumgartner’s bank account to get her to move out of his mansion, and he said he had previously given her $200,000 earlier in their marriage in line with their prenuptial agreement

However, Baumgartner isn’t touching the money, as she says doing so would rob her of her ability to contest their prenup’s validity.

She has also said that the couple have had no problems on days where Costner was staying at the home, and she says the mansion’s size and disconnected living spaces mean they can live together without interacting.

Costner’s legal team previously said in court filings that ‘Kevin has acted in good faith and has done everything in his power to make the transition as seamless as possible,’ according to Insider.

He is being represented by the famous divorce attorney Laura Wasser, who reportedly served as an inspiration for Laura Dern’s lawyer character in Noah Baumbach’s critically acclaimed film Marriage Story, which earned Dern an Academy Award for best supporting actress. 

It was previously reported that Baumgartner is seeking $248,000 per month in child support payments. She and Costner share three children: sons Cayden, 15; and Hayes, 14; along with their younger daughter Grace, 13.

However, Costner has said in other filings that he believes he should only pay around $38,000 per month. 

Earlier this week, The Sun reported that Costner was ‘blindsided’ when he was served divorce papers by his wife, as he thought that he would be the first to file.

The Waterworld actor ‘sat his family down, told them he and their mum were getting a divorce and his lawyer was getting the paperwork drawn up,’ a source claimed to the publication.

‘He wanted everything to be peaceful for the sake of his kids and told Christine he didn’t want a messy divorce because he’d already been through one,’ they continued. 

But ‘first thing the next morning, boom, Christine sneak attacks him and serves him with her own set of divorce papers.

‘Kevin was so shocked,’ the source added. ‘Christine has since made him look terrible, and has continued to do so.’

However, Baumgartner has previously shared a different, less flattering version of how their children learned of their impending divorce.

In a court filing obtained earlier this month by People, she claimed that Costner told the three children about the divorce via a Zoom chat while he was in Las Vegas filming on location.

The handbag designer added that she was not present during the Zoom call, and she noted that she was puzzled about why the children had to be told in that way, as Costner would be returning home in a matter of days.

‘I am still confused by his motivation to do this via a very short Zoom session, especially since he was planning on being home five days later,’ she wrote.

She added that she feared the children might learn of the split from an outside source, and she shared research with him that she had done that indicated a unified front with both parents was the best way to announce the divorce to the kids.

However, Baumgartner claimed that Costner was adamant about sharing the information before her and on his own.

‘He disregarded my proposal to do what I felt was right based on research and my relationship with the children. Instead, he insisted that he had the right to tell them that we were getting divorced “first” and tell them privately “without me present,”‘ she claimed.

It’s unclear if the alleged Zoom session could be the same event described by the source, or if there may have been two dates at which Costner spoke to the children about his separation from Baumgartner.