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Kevin Costner and his estranged wife Christine Baumgartner are in court today for a child support hearing.
“Extra” was there as Christine stoically entered the courthouse in Santa Barbara, California, wearing a gray blazer and skirt. Watch!
Kevin was later seen leaving the courthouse for a lunch break in a beige suit.
TMZ reports that Kevin blasted Christine in new court docs claiming she waged “relentless jihad” against him and that she has a boyfriend who’s given her $20,000!
Costner doesn’t name the man, but sources tell TMZ that Kevin thinks she’s seeing his friend Josh Connor. Insiders connected with Baumgartner and Connor, however, denied they were in a relationship, even though they recently took a trip to Hawaii together.
Later, when Christine took the stand, she denied she was dating Connor. Instead, she explained that their daughters are best friends.
He also accuses his ex of secretly using $105,000 of his money to pay her lawyers and reiterates previous accusations that Christine is asking for too much child support. She originally asked for nearly $250,000 per month. A judge temporarily awarded her $129,000, while they sort it out. She came back asking for $175,000.
The “Yellowstone” star thinks she’s using the money on herself, not the kids and that $63,000 per month would suffice. In the papers, his team reportedly says she doesn’t want to work, “She has no plans to seek employment or engage in any income-generating activity.”
Christine’s team previously claimed that the hefty child support ask was simply to maintain the same lifestyle in both households like a “comparable house” and vacations.
In papers obtained by Us Weekly, Baumgartner’s lawyers wrote, “Because the children fly on private aircraft to go on luxury vacations when they are with their father, the Family Code dictates that Kevin should pay sufficient child support to Christine 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,” Baumgartner’s lawyers claimed. “In this case, the guideline child support requested by Christine of $175,057 per month 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.”
Christine filed for divorce in May after 18 years of marriage.