After losing key court rulings all summer in her highly contentious split from Kevin Costner, Christine Baumgartner has reportedly agreed to give her her effort to challenge their prenuptial agreement and to settle their divorce.
“In what may be the most shocking turn of events this year,” the divorce war between Costner and Baumgartner is over because the warring ex-spouses have agreed to settle, TMZ reported Tuesday.
Yes, Baumgartner’s surrender may be “shocking,” but it wasn’t improbable,TMZ said, considering that Costner’s legal team had already won a series of legal skirmishes, particularly when it came to child support.
The former model and handbag designer demanded a whopping $248,000 a month in child support, saying such an amount was necessary to maintain their three children in the luxury lifestyle to which they had become accustomed. Costner’s team, headed by top celebrity divorce attorney Laura Wasser, pushed back, saying that Costner’s monthly obligation should only be $63,000. Earlier this month, Judge Thomas Anderle of the Santa Barbara County Superior Court sided with Costner.
Legal experts also said that Baumgartner risked being “financially wiped out” is she tried to challenge terms of the prenuptial agreement at a court hearing in November. Under these terms, Baumgartner stood to receive $1.5 million from the “Yellowstone” star. But these terms also said that Baumgartner would forfeit this settlement if she challenged any provision of the prenup, reports have said. She also could use up a sizable portion of her settlement to pay her lawyers — if the court ruled that Costner wasn’t obligated to cover any of her court costs.
“It’s a very dangerous game she’s playing,” Christopher Melcher, a Los Angeles-based family law attorney, told this news organization in July. Melcher, who has worked with a number or high-profile clients, said she could be “financially wiped out” by her court challenges.
“She has a lot more to lose here than he does,” Melcher said. “However this turns out, Kevin will always be rich, and he’ll be fine.” Costner, according to Baumgartner’s lawyers, has an estimated net worth of $400 million.
Anderle had already sided with the actor and director in several key rulings.
Anderle found that the prenup, which Baumgartner signed before their 2004 marriage, was enforceable when it came to the provision that she needed to leave the family home in the event of a divorce. After Baumgartner filed for divorce on May 1, after 18 years of marriage, the former model initially seemed determined to stay put in their $145 million oceanfront estate near Santa Barbara with their three children. sons Cayden, 15, and Logan, 14, and daughter Grace, 12.
But Anderle ruled that Baumgartner needed to vacate the home by the end of July. She has since settled into a four-bedroom home in Montecito, which rents for $40,000 a month and includes a pool, hot tub and one acre of gardens, Us Weekly reported.
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
