Kevin Costner Wins Ugly Child Support Battle With Ex-Wife Christine Baumgartner: Judge Reveals Final Amount

• Kevin Costner’s wife of 18 years, Christine Baumgartner, filed for divorce in May, and was seeking $161,000 a month in child support for their three children
• The pair co-parent Cayden Wyatt, 15, Hayes Logan, 14, and Grace Avery, 13: Baumgartner went to court to try and guarantee their income
• On Friday a judge in Santa Barbara awarded her $63,000 a month – less than half the $129,000 she currently gets, and just over a third of what she wanted
• Kevin Costner has scored a dramatic victory in his divorce battle with estranged wife Christine Baumgartner after a judge in Santa Barbara slashed her child support payments to $63,000 per month – less than half of the $129,000 she currently gets and considerably less than the $161,000 she wanted.

The judgement came at the end of a two day evidentiary hearing which saw both sides set out what they believed to be a ‘reasonable’ amount of child support and why.

After the verdict, Costner said there were ‘no winners’ in the bruising battle.

‘You know, when you have a life that long with somebody, there is no winner…and it’s this big, crazy thing called life and how it unravels so quickly,’ he told Fox News Digital.

‘One minute you feel like you’re on top of the world, and then you realize how, you know, how vulnerable you are.’

He said he and Baumgartner would eventually work out a fair custody arrangement, and praised her as a mother.

‘She’s an incredible mom,’ he said. ‘We will figure it out and we’ll share. We just got to kind of convalesce right now.’

Costner took the stand for a second time during the final hour of the hearing and told the court that his biggest fear was being forced to take on jobs he didn’t want to should Baumgartner be awarded an ‘inflated’ level of child support.

He also apologized to his estranged wife of 18 years, saying: ‘I want to help but the thought of having things inflated to the point I can’t do what I want to do…

‘Somehow in this unusual world, we didn’t make it and for that, I’m sorry.’

There will be a trial in November over the prenuptial agreement and her request for spousal support.