How Much is Too Much? 3 million a year? Kevin Costner and Christine Baumgartner's Divorce

How much should a spouse get when they divorce after 18 years and children are involved? According to Kevin Costner's ex-wife, close to half, even though she signed the truly ridiculous prenup. Kevin is reportedly worth 400 million; she claims he made 300 million during the marriage. His first wife got a huge chunk because they had no prenup. After all, he wasn't a massive star when they hooked up; they were university students. Cindy Silva got 80 million of the money they earned; she deserved it. She was there for the low times of the struggle, and when he needed her to make sacrifices for his career, she did. Now, she's remarried to a man with his own fortune; they live privately and are reportedly very happy. 

But how much should someone when they are set to marry a well-established celebrity or someone with a lot of money? Prenups are for everyone and not just for the super wealthy. Getting a prenup is good if you have property or an inheritance. That seems fair to me. Plenty of middle class women could have used a prenup because divorce can bring out sides of people that aren't pleasant. Money is a subject people avoid, but you better talk about it before you tie your life with someone else's. It isn't romantic, but neither is downsizing to an apartment when the Victorian home you inherited gets sold, and the ex gets half. Yeah, that happened to a friend of mine. He'd cleaned out their savings on top of that. It wasn't millions, but it was her nest egg for her retirement after a successful dance career. So she had to dance longer than her body could handle, something she swore she would never do. 

I tried to see Christine's side. That prenup is pretty restrictive: 1.5 million, 200 thousand as a down payment for a new house, plus child support. She may walk away with nothing because challenging the prenup forfeits her payout. The children are teenagers, and she has about four years to get money, but he's filing for joint custody, which will diminish her payout when she gets it. I am not without sympathy. I am just without a lot of support for the amount. 

So she's saying the 130,000 he offered a month is insufficient for child support. Kevin didn't want more children when they married because he already had four, but he was in love, so rather than lose her, he relented. Awww, ain't that romantic and sweet? Ha! He wasn't so in love that he didn't get a draconian prenup for her to sign. "You are fabulous and stuff, but if you leave me, you will live in a condo in the valley. Yes, valley, not canyon, and not the valley you are considering. The other valley is miles from Los Angeles, but a cozy (read small) condo is something."

Hell no! I would never have signed something that paltry. That is nothing in California, and it would mean hustling to have something the kids could live in comfortably. No way would I marry someone worth 130 million and get some shit like that. But she signed it. People thought she was a golddigger and was going to prove them wrong. Dumbass. Did she ever ask herself what kind of man thinks her life is worth so little? Is he trying to make it impossible for her to leave? What level of human being would put her love at such a nothingness when he has so much? She's trying to bank a bit with child support and wants 250 thousand a month. Three million a year in child support. What for? The crack she must be smoking? 

The man is known far and wide as having a roving eye and a big one. I had heard about him in 2000 or so, and that was before they married. Was she going to change him? Heal the hurt little boy who lives inside of him that makes him cheat? Get real. Men who fall into vaginas regularly that aren't the ones they should be falling into do not change. They don't, and it is arrogant to think you possess something more than all of those other women do. For a moment, sure, that's plausible. But girl. Come on. 

Something happened for her to file for divorce, and it was probably something shitty he did. I do not doubt that for a minute. She should have negotiated an increase for her time served post the first baby. After ten years, she should have been given 30(really 50, but she needed him to sign it) percent of his earnings during the marriage. That would have been more than fair, and she would have had enough to live close to the same. 

  

She's tasted the high life and doesn't want to give it up. I don't blame her; 18 years is a long enough time to get used to the money. She doesn't want to go back to what she probably grew up in; Christine Baumgartner is not that girl anymore; she's Christine fucking Costner wife of a giant star living large with anything she wants at her fingertips. (He should have noticed she went back to her natural color(she looks so much better) because it darkened over the course of the marriage as if the blonde was fading like her love tolerance for him.)

 

She claims she was coerced, he hid assets, blah blah blah. Okay, so he only said he had 130 million when he had more. What does it matter? It doesn't matter if he had 5 billion. She signed it, and something tells me he made sure it was as tight as a tick's arse. What she needs is another rich man...Oh, she's already looking. Girl is out and about trying to secure it already. She was seen in Hawaii very publicly with Costner's financier close friend. If that were me and my husband were seen frolicking with my best friend after we split, I would be on a rampage to destroy him. It would be weird, too. My BFF is a gay man. 

                                            Note to Kevin, she's blonde again. Uh oh. 

(photos courtesy of Getty, Dreamtime, Page Six.)

My personal brush with money-at-stake happened a few years ago. When my grandmother died, my aunt suddenly became the Joan of Arc of the family and martyred herself as the one who was always there, and she was the one who nursed my grandmother through breast cancer. Many other people were involved, but sure, hop on the cross, lady. She had been a pain in my grandmother's ass her whole life and broke her heart several times. I have never discussed her because she makes me want to kick her arse up and down the Long Island Expressway. She has jewelry, art, collectibles, and some valuable antique furniture she snuck in and took while my grandmother was dying from COVID-19. Funerals are like divorces when something is at stake, and it gets ugly af we see what someone's really made of. I refuse to speak to her; she has called me about 25 times, no joke. She was my favorite aunt when I was little; she was the youngest, coolest, and had a chic photographer boyfriend named Russ. We still have really lovely photos he took of everyone. Now, there is nothing she can say. My heart is set against her, and it won't budge.