Kevin Costner Accuses Estranged Wife Christine Baumgartner Of Deliberately Prolonging Divorce

Kevin Costner is accusing his estranged wife, Christine Baumgartner, of “gamesmanship of the worst sort” and deliberately prolonging their divorce. 

Baumgartner has allegedly attempted to dodge Costner’s lawyers’ questions about the premarital agreement, and they now have been forced to ask the court to compel her to answer these questions.  

Costner’s lawyers are claiming that Baumgartner refuses to answer questions about if she understood the agreement she signed before her marriage to Costner. It is vital in their case that she answer them for the upcoming trial in November that will determine if the prenup is valid, as Baumgartner is currently challenging it. By doing so, Baumgartner is currently at risk of losing the $1.5 million she received from Costner under the terms of the prenup. 

According to the court documents, Costner has asserted, “Christine has only thrown roadblock after roadblock up in an unjustified effort to avoid answering this discovery.”

She is able to do this by claiming that she does not understand certain words or terms being used in the question, including “legal effect” or “supersedes,” and therefore cannot answer them. Costner’s lawyers explained, “She refuses to admit (or even deny) that the specific factual representations she and her attorney made in the PMA itself are accurate, to wit, that she understood the PMA, that it was explained to her and that she acknowledged she understood the meaning and legal effect of the PMA.” 

They continued, “Understood is not a technical or arcane word. It is not ground for objection that a request is ambiguous unless it is so ambiguous that the responding party cannot in good faith frame an intelligent reply. The notion that Christine and the multiple seasoned lawyers representing her do not understand the word ‘understood’ and cannot reply to this simple, straightforward [request for admission] is frivolous. Clearly, this vagueness objection was interposed only for the purpose of delay.” 

The cut-off for the discovery of more evidence is on October 27 due to the bifurcated trial being set for November 27. Costner’s lawyers are affirming that because of the limited time they have, “Christine’s refusal to make her contentions known and evasive and dilatory discovery responses has unreasonably interfered with Kevin’s right to conduct discovery relevant to the validity of the PMA and to timely prepare for that trial, to his prejudice.” 

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In addition to trying to prove the validity of the prenup, Costner is seeking $14,000 due to the legal fees he has accrued while attempting to force Baumgartner to answer his questions. In this request, his lawyers stated, “Discovery is not a game of chicken. Kevin should never have been required to spend money to file a motion.”

An evidentiary hearing has been set and will take place on August 31 and September 1.