Kevin Costner revealed that his very public divorce from Christine Baumgartner took a very personal toll.
Costner, 69, and Baumgartner, 50, finalized their divorce in February after nearly two decades of marriage, and the split came while Costner was in the strenuous process of making his new movie, Horizon: An American Saga.
In an interview with GQ published Monday, May 20, Costner said it all amounted to some “very serious stuff.”
“Those things are very important,” Costner said of juggling the divorce and the movie simultaneously. “I have to deal with them. And I have to deal with them on a daily basis, emotionally, historically almost.”
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The Yellowstone star also noted there were children involved, as he and Baumgartner share sons Cayden, 17 and Hayes, 15, and daughter Grace, 13.
Costner said, “Then there’s the immediate needs of children. I’m not going to list the things — I’m going to stop right there with them. That is my job, looking at that, and dealing with that.”
In the chaotic aftermath of the divorce filing — which Baumgartner made in May 2023 — Costner made a vow to adhere to his own compass.
“I’ve taken big bites out of life, life’s taken big ones out of me, right?” he acknowledged. “I’m not going to lose myself because I’ve been bruised. I have been, but I’m not going to lose myself.”
Costner also explained that he had a lot on the line with Horizon, which he called his “white whale,” a project he said he invested $38 million of his own money into.
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“I can’t let go of this rope no matter how much my heart’s on the ground, no matter how broken I may be on a daily basis, I can’t let go of this rope because if I do, this thing called Horizon will stop,” Costner said. “And Horizon’s not more important than the other things in my life, but I do have a level of responsibility to those guys that invested with me, to the people that believe in me, to the people that want to work all four of these, and are willing to postpone other jobs on the hint that I might work.”
He continued, “It doesn’t matter how much water’s hitting me in the face, I can’t let go of the rope that is this thing. Pull. Don’t just f–king hold on. Pull the f–king rope too.”
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 hits theaters June 28, with Chapter 2 following on August 16.
