After 18 years of marriage, Kevin Costner and his wife Christine Baumgartner are divorcing.
"It is with great sadness that, due to circumstances beyond his control, Mr. Costner has had to participate in the dissolution of the marriage," a representative for the actor, Arnold Robinson, said in a statement.
The actor and the model, handbag designer began dating in 1998 and married on his Colorado ranch in 2004. They have two sons, ages 14 and 15, and a 12-year-old daughter.
Christine Baumgartner filed for separation from the actor last Monday, six months after she gave her husband an ultimatum to leave the set of Yellowstone, the popular western series in which he has starred since 2018, shot in Montana and keeping him away from home and family for months on end during filming.
Baumgartner has filed for joint custody of their three children: Cayden, 15, Hayes, 14, and Grace, 12.
"We ask that his privacy and that of Christine and their children be respected as they go through this difficult time," the statement concluded.
This is the second marriage for 68-year-old Costner, the Oscar- and Emmy-winning star of the TV series "Yellowstone" and films such as "Dances with Wolves," "The Bodyguard" and "Bull Durham."
He was married to Cindy Silva for 16 years, from whom he divorced in 1994, and with whom he has three children: Annie, 39, Lily, 36, and Joe, 35. The actor also shares a son Liam Costner with Bridget Rooney, with whom he was in a relationship after his split from Silva.
Reports have surfaced in recent months that Costner is having issues with series creator Taylor Sheridan and is even considering leaving the cast or reducing his workload in season five to focus on other projects. “Kevin will always be proud and grateful for Yellowstone and the cast is like family to him. But he feels that Yellowstone is going in a different direction than it started…”.
In parallel with filming, perhaps, the second part of the fifth season of "Yellowstone", the actor and director has also recently started a new western project which he will direct, produce and star in and has a shooting schedule of more than 200 days.
Costner would be working on the project in Utah, where filming began in August 2022 on the first chapter of what has been described as a dream project for the actor, who also hopes to shoot Horizon 3. ” and “Horizon 4” and which marks the great return of the author after almost 20 years since his last film “Open Range”.