Copyright Us Weekly
For Kevin Costner, storytelling is much more than simply entertainment. “I think storytelling can be healing. It can be informative. It can remind us of who we think we’d like to be,” Costner, 70, exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, November 11, at The Art of Elysium Presents Lee Daniels’ Vision of Heaven Gala at Rosewood Miramar in Montecito, California. The Yellowstone alum continued, “A lot of times you see great heroism on the screen, sometimes even in the smallest way. And when we see it, we recognize it, and we think to ourselves, I need to be like that. We know what the opposite is. But sometimes we see things in movies that we wish we would have said that we still can.” Costner spoke to Us as The Art of Elysium, a nonprofit organization dedicated to healing and inspiring through the arts, unveiled Lee Daniels’ Heaven 2025: Heaven Begins Within, a one-night-only immersive artistic experience. In addition to telling Us about how he’s used storytelling in his life, Costner opened up about his plans for the upcoming holidays, which look a bit different following his divorce from ex-wife Christine Baumgartner. He revealed that he’s focused on making memories with his kids. (Costner shares Cayden, 18, Hayes, 16, and Grace, 15, with Baumgartner, 51, as well as Annie, 41, Lily, 39, and Joe, 37, with ex-wife Cindy Silva and Liam, 28, with ex Bridget Rooney.) “I think when they were younger, there were things that were more repetitive,” the Dances With Wolves star explained. “Now you’re just fighting to get them home from college or fight. … You know what I mean, just getting together. So, I do the best I can to make it as warm as I can.” Costner also admitted that he misses the holiday traditions his family once had. “And I’m a bachelor, so I kind of miss those, like, really cute things to do, you know, so I have to work especially hard to make sure there’s that stuff that they think about and remember,” he explained. Baumgartner filed for divorce from Costner after nearly 19 years of marriage in May 2023, citing irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split. The exes reached a settlement in September 2023 and finalized the divorce in February 2024. Costner and Baumgartner agreed to share joint custody of their children, while the Oscar winner was ordered to pay the handbag designer more than $63,000 a month in child support. “It’s really about the children,” Costner told People in June 2024 of getting through their bitter divorce. “You just do it. You just keep talking, you keep coaching [the kids], you keep interested in what they’re interested in.” Costner has dipped his toes into the dating world following the divorce. In August, multiple sources exclusively told Us that he was dating director and author Kelly Noonan Gores. “They are hanging out casually and were connected by friends,” one insider shared. “They have been getting to know each other and seeing each other casually when they can.” (Us reached out to Costner’s rep and Noonan Gores for comment at the time.) Baumgartner, meanwhile, has also moved on. She got engaged to financier Josh Connor in January, and the pair tied the knot at the Santa Ynez Ranch in Santa Barbara, California, in October.
