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Kevin Costner claimed he can’t afford to pay estranged spouse Christine Baumgartner $248,000 a month in youngster assist now that he’s not “underneath contract” for Yellowstone.
“I’ll earn considerably much less in 2023 than I did in 2022. It is because I’m not underneath contract for Yellowstone, the principal supply of my revenue final yr,” Costner, 68, said in paperwork filed on Wednesday, June 28, and obtained by Us Weekly the next day. “The mounted quantity ‘pay or play’ and episodic compensation I obtained has ceased. Now, any compensation I earn from Yellowstone will derive solely from my back-end contractual participation rights, which quantities should not mounted.”
Costner, who has starred as patriarch John Dutton on the household drama because it premiered in 2018, added {that a} “latest report from the producer for Yellowstone confirmed he was not owed any participation cash” — a declare he has since “disputed” — and that he has but to obtain any compensation from the sequence this yr.
Paramount Community formally introduced in Might that Yellowstone will finish with its fifth season, the primary half of which concluded in January. The second batch of episodes have been initially slated to premiere in the summertime, however have been pushed again to fall. The information got here after months of hypothesis about a rift between creator Taylor Sheridan and Costner, who reportedly wished off the sequence. The extent of Costner’s participation within the remaining episodes of Yellowstone has but to be confirmed. (Paramount has but to answer to a request for remark from Us Weekly.)
Final week, Baumgartner, 49 — who filed for divorce from Costner in Might — claimed in paperwork obtained by Us that her estranged husband makes an estimated $1,537,000 a month from his varied jobs as an actor and director. She listed their month-to-month bills — which have been paid totally by Costner — as over $550,000 and famous she didn’t have the funds to take care of the household’s present way of life. (She filed the paperwork after Costner took authorized motion to oust her from their shared house.)
Costner, nevertheless, said in Wednesday’s paperwork that his estranged spouse did “not give a real image of my money movement” by “wanting solely eventually yr’s revenue.” As a result of nature of his profession, Costner stated that how a lot he earns is “variable and might change fairly dramatically” relying on the yr. He known as her request for $248,000 a month “astonishing” and one thing he can’t afford to pay. “Nor can I afford to pay these quantities and pay my residing and enterprise bills with out liquidating belongings,” he added.
Costner, who shares youngsters Cayden 16, Hayden 14, and Grace, 13, with Baumgartner, additionally famous in his submitting that he informed his estranged spouse 2023 “could be a troublesome yr financially” if he was not engaged on Yellowstone and he would doubtless need to “defer my wage on the Horizon movie tasks to the back-end (which I did). Christine informed me she understood.”
The Horizon saga — which is co-written, produced and directed by Costner — is an upcoming American epic Western movie costarring Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Luke Wilson and Thomas Haden Church. Three sequels have already been greenlit, with the primary having begun filming in August 2022. In Might, Costner confirmed that filming was underway on the second film.
To counter Baumgarner’s $280,000 monthly request, Costner — who stated Baumgartner allegedly “allocates 60 p.c of bills” for private wants like “a non-public coach” and “cosmetic surgery” — supplied on Thursday to proceed to pay $51,940 a month plus one hundred pc of the youngsters’s medical health insurance, their extracurricular bills, daughter Grace’s personal college tuition and Cayden’s automotive prices.