Kevin Costner took paternity test after having son with Pittsburgh Steelers' heiress long before divorce No 2
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: ‘Yellowstone’ star Kevin Costner is going through a divorce for the second time in his life. The actor and his second wife, Christine Baumgartner, are now reportedly separating. The pair share three children, Hayes Logan, Grace Avery and Cayden Wyatt.
As per Costner's representative, who spoke with PEOPLE, “It is with great sadness that circumstances beyond his control have transpired which have resulted in Mr. Costner having to participate in a dissolution of marriage action. We ask that his, Christine's, and their children's privacy be respected as they navigate this difficult time.”
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‘A full marital settlement has been reached’
This comes just a few months after the 68-year-old actor reportedly said of Baumgartner, “My wife does things that just completely... It just helps. The house is prettier because of her. Everything is warmer because of her. There's these little things that she does and I think it's the power of love, but that she makes her home that way.”
Earlier in 1994, Costner went down the same difficult road with his first wife, Cindy Silva. The duo had been married for 16 years. In a statement, at the time, they said, “We have amicably resolved all issues regarding our children and financial affairs and a full marital settlement has been reached.” However, divorces are not the only issue in the ‘Dances With Wolves’ star’s life.
Who is Bridget Rooney?
After divorcing Silva, Costner developed feelings for Bridget Rooney, who is Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney’s niece. The couple stayed together for months and also had a son, Liam, in November 1996. However, ‘The Bodyguard’ actor was reportedly reluctant to acknowledge him as his child.
Rooney then pressed for a paternity test, which proved Costner was indeed Liam’s father. After the DNA result, he went on to launch a trust fund for his son and also began to visit him “occasionally but not on a regular basis,” PEOPLE reported. However, things between Costner and Rooney did not end in marriage as the heiress tied the knot with multimillionaire investor William I Koch in 2005.
‘There’s so much room for love’
Costner is a proud father of seven children. He shares his eldest children — Annie, Lily and Joe — with Silva. He once reportedly shared, “I'm really comfortable with my family. I'm really comfortable with my children. Our house is like a river: You've just got to get into the flow of it ... And whatever you thought it was going to be, maybe it still can, but it's going to have to work with what the day brings.”
In 2015, Costner revealed to Mom.com how he manages his big family, “It almost seemed impossible to love the first [child] any more than you loved them. And then suddenly the second one comes, and you think there’s so much room for love. There’s so much room.”
He added, “And that’s the way it is with children, and if there was any, perhaps jealousy that existed, I basically reminded [my older kids] that they were going to have twice as long with me on this planet. I said, ‘Look, they’re not going to have what you had,’ and at that point, they all just embraced each other."