Who is Kevin Costner's wife? Christine Baumgartner and actor are like 'little kids together'
If there's one thing that psyched baseball fans more than the Field of Dreams game in Iowa, it was Kevin Costner's bombastic entry into the premises to open the location. Through the opening ceremony, Costner revisited his 1989 titular classic where the actor plays a farmer who builds a baseball field in his own cornfield after a mysterious voice says, “if you build it, he will come”. But those who know or know of Costner, know his forte for all things filled with grandeur. Especially his dazzling 2004 wedding to current wife and model, Christine Baumgartner - where Costner showed up in a horse-drawn carriage!
The 'Yellowstone' and 'The Bodyguard' actor's grand opening of the 8000 seat stadium saw the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox travel all the way to Dyersville, Iowa for a match marking the inauguration. The baseball professionals followed Costner's entrance through the cornfield, paying a fitting homage to his film 32 years after its release. Some things are eternally evergreen, and Costner, much like grand entrances, knows the worth of keeping things steady but simple. His and Baumgartner's wedding might have all kinds of a Cinderella story, but the way they met still continues to be one of the most simple, but forever adorable meet-cute.
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Who is Kevin Costner's wife?
On September 25, 2004, Costner married his then-girlfriend of four years, Baumgartner. Costner tied the knot with the American model and handbag designer in his ranch in Aspen, Colorado. The couple has since shared sons Cayden, born in 2007, son Hayes born in 2009, and daughter Grace who was born in 2010. At the time of their wedding, despite their glaring 20-year-age gap and a brief split before Costner popped the question, close friend David Giammarco had told People magazine that the couple was “like little kids together, really in love.
Costner, who has a total of seven children from three different relationships, began dating Baumgartner after meeting her for the second time, at a restaurant, in 1998. Curiously enough, that's not their meet-cut. They had met for the first time, decades ago, writes People, while golfing. It's unsure whether Costner was married to first wife Cindy Silva at the time, but they had split by the time he met Baumgartner again in the late 90s.
Speaking to People in 2003, Costner had said of that second meeting: "We exchanged numbers, and I told her that I would – did she mind if I called her in two weeks. I did not realize that was like an insult to a woman." In the long run, that unintentional insult did not seem to matter much, but the two did have a brief lapse in their blissful life together when they split in 2003. The Academy Award nominated actor and his designer wife were unable to reach a middle ground about having children. By then Costner had already fathered four kids - Annie, Lily, and Joe with Silva, and son Liam with Bridget Rooney, whom Costner had a brief relationship with post his split from Silva.
Why did Costner and Baumgartner split?
“Fear kept me from marrying Christine,” Costner had shared about their split to Closer Weekly in 2018. “[She] wanted a child, but I was afraid I couldn’t be an effective father." the actor said. All it took was the fourth year of their relationship when, Costner recalls, "I woke up and thought, ‘Am I going to lose a beautiful woman who is willing to be with me to my very last breath because I am afraid to say yes to a child?'. That’s all it took. Sometimes you learn the thing you’re most afraid of will save your life.”
Their first child arrived just three years into their marriage and the rest has been history. Grateful as ever about being a family man, Costner recently gushed to the outlet saying: “Movies are magic, and they’ve always been magic to me,” Kevin gushed to Closer. “You get to play heroes in the movies, but there’s a moment in time where you’re just a father and you get to go home. I have played two roles in my life, one I get paid to do, which is the movies, and the other one is being a father, for which I’ll be rewarded my whole life.”