Kevin Costner Scoffs at Wife Christine's Request for $885,000 in Attorney's Fees

Well, Kevin Costner and Christine Baumgartner settled, or the judge, rather, has settled the child support. Yeah, the judge settled it. They didn't settle it. Yeah. The child support issue. And Kevin won. Which Kevin came out on top in. And he is going for another victory in what is certainly going to be a long, long war. I want to dispute that a little bit. It's not that he's going for a victory. He is blocking her from trying to get more money. And I say, if he does block, if he is successful in this, then it will be a victory. But he's not going for it. She started going for something that he blocked. Right. Just like she started going for bigger child support, and he ended up winning. Because of your age now, you're into the grammar thing and everything. Just say that I won. I got you. It's fine. Yes. So the battle now is over attorney's fees. And Christine wants Kevin to pay for hers, which is not unheard of. But here's what's unusual about it. There are attorney's fees that have not yet been incurred. So what she's saying is this. I want to challenge the spousal support limitation in the prenuptial agreement. Because I want spousal support. And her lawyers filed a document saying it will take about $855,000 to challenge that point. There's going to be a trial on it in a couple of months. Well, Kevin's lawyer, Laura Wasser, was just incredulous and said, based on their fee, you're saying it's going to take her lawyers more than 1,100 hours to figure out how to argue that the spousal support provision shouldn't be enforced. Now, we should say, Harvey, it's very common, it happens in every big case, that the wealthier of the spouses typically will be ordered to pay the attorney's fees of the less wealthy spouse. So it's there. But it's the timing of it, because you're right, they're doing it, they're asking for it before the fees have been incurred, number one. And number two, it's nearly a million dollars for something that's going to happen very shortly in the future. I mean, I'm always one for lawyers to get paid, but this seems a little outrageous. It seems ridiculous. So look, so already what Kevin has done is this. He's paid her $300,000 in legal fees. He claims that she took $105,000 additionally from his accounts that she shouldn't have taken to help pay the lawyers. And now she wants $855,000. So what they're saying is, look, you guys have been losing the whole time. In fact, you know, we talked about the child support. Kevin said the appropriate amount was $63,000. She wanted $248,000 a month. But he said he was willing to give her $75,000 a month, more than the $63,000, just to end the fight. And she wouldn't end the fight. And the judge ordered the $63,000, so she lost even that. So everyone seems to, except for Christine's attorneys, agree that that number she threw out is absurd. Is this gamesmanship? Is part of it like a negotiation? Like I'm going to ask for this. I know I'm not going to end up getting that, but it'll be, I'm setting a bar so that I can end up somewhere. There's another way of looking at it. And Jason, you know this well. At a point, you settle. Because sometimes you actually do better settling than if you fight it out in court, which she just learned with child support. She would have gotten $75,000 instead of the $63,000. The only people who benefit when you don't settle are lawyers, right? It is always in their best interest to find a resolution that makes the most sense. Because he may, he's going to have to pay some of her lawyers' fees. That's unquestioned. And he's going to have to pay his own as well. And they're not cheap. And so we're talking about big time six, maybe even seven figures that he's looking at in future fees. He's better off settling. Christine Baumgartner is certainly better off settling. It just seems like the natural place for this to go. Dr. Rose Schmidt calling in from Austin, Texas. I agree with Kevin Costner's lawyer. I'm not a lawyer, but I would say that fair is fair. If you have already settled, the prenup is there. Why are you asking for more money? You might end up with absolutely nothing. And there's a measure of just being an honest person and pure. So I wish them both well, but I'm on Kevin's side. Since you're a doctor, I got this thing in my elbow that it's been bothering me when I swim. I'm wondering if you can help me out. I'm not sure what kind of doctor you are, but. I'm a PhD doctor, not a medical doctor. What would you do with the elbow anyway? I'm kidding. By the way, not to nitpick, but just to explore how big the number is. You said 850,000. It's actually 885,000. Excuse me. So, apologize. Yeah.