Christine Baumgartner wants Kevin Costner to pay $175K a month in child support

Kevin Costner and Christine Baumgartner’s divorce is certainly one of the messiest celebrity divorces we’ve seen in a while. This one is not being adjudicated quietly by some private judge or mediator. It’s spilling out in open family court, with their lawyers dueling in legal filings. I’m still rooting for Christine, but I think she’s going to get reamed when it comes to nullifying the prenup. Which is probably why she’s arguing that she needs much more in child support:

Kevin Costner’s getting off easy paying $129k per month in child support … according to Christine Baumgartner who wants that number increased to ensure their kids keep living large when they’re with her.

Christine filed docs, obtained by TMZ, asking the court to reconsider the amount of child support Kevin pays due to 2 factors — 1. making sure the kids enjoy the same lifestyle with both parents, and 2. what she’s learned about how much money Kevin’s been making. She lays it out in the docs, explaining their 4 children live in a beach compound with their dad that’s worth between $65 million and $95 mil … and they also fly private on luxury vacations with Kevin.

You’ll recall, Kevin took the kids to Aspen last month — right after Christine had them in Hawaii. She says Kevin needs to pay sufficient child support “so that the children can go on comparable vacations when they are with her. This is true even if the child support payments also improve Christine’s lifestyle.”

Christine says that’s simply the standard required by California family code. Based on that alone, she says the $129k/month won’t cut it, and she’s instead estimating $175,057/month. And by the way, Christine says that’s a deal because that higher amount “will not be sufficient to replicate Kevin’s lifestyle, but it will be sufficient to allow her to provide a lifestyle for the children which is relatively comparable.”

Now, as for Kevin’s income … she says his average cash flow for the last 2 years was $19,248,467 each year, or more than $1.6 million each month. Based on them having 50/50 custody of the kids, she claims California guidelines require Kevin to pay that $175k/mo. she’s requesting.

[From TMZ]

By the letter of the law, she’s correct. There’s a formula to how child support is calculated, and while it seems downright silly, the court absolutely takes into account “parents should be able to give their kids comparable vacations.” While Christine’s calculations are for Kevin’s previous income, while he was on Yellowstone, his finances are probably going to take a hit now that he’s left a popular and lucrative series. So… it’s really up to the court to figure it out. Meanwhile, Christine and Kevin are also arguing about affairs:

Kevin Costner, in new divorce court documents, says he did not have an affair while adding that he “does not know for a fact” whether estranged wife Christine did. Ahead of an upcoming hearing on child support and the November trial to determine the validity of their premarital agreement, Christine’s attorneys are asking for more documentation proving Kevin’s finances.

As an exhibit in her latest request for order, obtained by PEOPLE, Christine’s attorneys included Kevin’s lawyers responding to asks from his estranged wife’s side, including one regarding any “expenses paid by you, or any person at your request or on your behalf, relating to any extramarital romantic relationships.”

Kevin, 68, objected to the request as his legal team wrote that it is “propounded only for purposes of harassment, is overbroad as to time period and subject matter, burdensome, oppressive and impermissibly compound.” They added that the request is seeking information “not relevant to the subject matter” since “there is no community property” between them in this split.

Additionally, they argued, that Kevin “does not know for a fact if [Christine] engaged in any ‘extramarital romantic relationships’ before separation and, if so, whether she spent any of his money or charged any expenses in furtherance of her affair(s) on credit cards he paid.” His side added, “[Kevin] has no responsive documents for ‘extramarital romantic relationships’ in which he engaged because he engaged in none.”

[From People]

LOL. This is why Christine hired that forensic accountant (and charged it to Kevin’s credit card). She wanted a better idea of what kind of money he has, and whether he’s lying about this or that. I have no idea if Costner was cheating (if past is prologue, well…) and I have no idea if Christine was cheating, but holy sh-t, this is so deliciously messy. Costner really should have just given her an eight-figure settlement and one of his 10 houses and called it a day.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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