Christine Baumgartner has to fork out over $14k to cover a portion of the 'Yellowstone' actor's attorney fees as the result of her dragging out answers to his legal team's questions if she understands the prenup she signed.
- Sep 7, 2023
AceShowbiz - Kevin Costner is on a winning streak in his divorce battle with Christine Baumgartner. His estranged wife has been ordered to pay over $14k of his divorce attorney fees following a hearing on Wednesday, September 6.
During the ruling, Judge Thomas Anderle emphasized that this is "certainly a case of consequence." The attorney fees totaling $14,237.50 were accrued from the effort to obtain answers from Christine about her understanding of their prenuptial agreement.
Kevin's lawyer, disso queen Laura Wasser, had asked Christine if she understood the Premarital Agreement she signed. There was a lot of back-and-forth between lawyers and Kevin's bill for trying squeeze an answer from Christine amounted to $14k.
Christine and her lawyers essentially said they didn't understand what "understand" meant. In legal documents filed by Kevin's legal team back in August, they claimed she "refused in bad faith" to answer questions sent to her by the "Yellowstone" actor's legal team.
The documents continued to state that she "refuses to make known all of her contentions regarding the validity of the PMA." It added, "The objections she has mustered in an effort to not disclose her contentions are frivolous. She says she does not understand words like 'understood' or 'negotiation, so she cannot answer this discovery."
"Discovery is not a game of chicken. Kevin should never have been required to spend money to file a motion," the document stated.
The judge ordered Christine to pay the $14k bill and submit her answers to Kevin's questions by September 22. The judge also denied Christine's request for order, filed on August 21. She had asked the court to order her estranged husband to hand over financial documents and have him pay nearly $9,000 in attorney fees. "I spent a lot of time trying to capture exactly what it is you didn't have," the judge said in court.
It is unclear if Christine will challenge the prenup. If she does and she loses, she will end up having to pay Kevin's attorney fees incurred in defending the prenup.
Christine previously had her child support cut in half after asking for a significant increase from $129,000 to $175,057/month. The judge ruled on September 1 that Kevin will pay $63,209 per month in child support instead.
