Kevin Costner’s Ex-Wives Cindy Silva and Christine Baumgartner: Marriages, Divorces, and Kids
If you’re looking up Kevin Costner’s ex-wife, you’re really asking about two major chapters of his life: Cindy Silva, his first wife and the mother of his three oldest children, and Christine Baumgartner, his second wife and the mother of his three youngest children. The headlines can get messy, but the real timeline is simple once you lay it out—and it explains a lot about how Costner’s personal life has evolved alongside a very public career.
Who are Kevin Costner’s ex-wives?
Kevin Costner has two ex-wives:
Cindy Silva (married 1978, divorced 1994)
Christine Baumgartner (married 2004, divorce finalized February 2024)
Both relationships were long-term, both included children, and both occurred during very different phases of Costner’s rise and reinvention as an actor, director, and producer. Understanding that “two-era” reality helps you avoid the confusion that often comes from vague bios that only mention the most recent divorce.
Cindy Silva: Kevin Costner’s first ex-wife
Cindy Silva is Kevin Costner’s first ex-wife and, for many fans, the “original” partner associated with his early career. Their relationship began long before he became a global movie star. That detail matters because it makes their story feel less like celebrity romance and more like a real-life partnership that had to adjust to fame arriving fast and staying loud.
Costner and Silva married in 1978. In the years that followed, his career took off—eventually placing him at the center of major Hollywood projects and massive public attention. When a marriage spans the period where one person becomes extremely famous, it also spans the growing pains that fame brings: constant travel, public scrutiny, unpredictable schedules, and the emotional fatigue of being “on” all the time.
They divorced in 1994, ending a marriage that lasted about sixteen years. Even decades later, Cindy Silva remains an important part of Costner’s personal history because she was there through the climb—when careers are unstable, money is uncertain, and the future isn’t guaranteed.
Kevin Costner’s children with Cindy Silva
Kevin Costner and Cindy Silva share three children:
Annie Costner
Lily Costner
Joe Costner
When you hear Costner talk about fatherhood in interviews, it’s clear that parenting has stretched across multiple decades for him, not just one season of life. His oldest children are adults, with their own paths and identities separate from “being Kevin Costner’s kids.” That’s worth noting because it’s easy for the internet to treat celebrity families like trivia, when in reality the timeline tells you something more human: he raised children while building a career that rarely slows down.
What people often forget about the first marriage
A lot of “Kevin Costner ex-wife” searches focus on the most recent divorce and forget the earlier marriage entirely. But Cindy Silva is central to understanding Costner’s personal history for one simple reason: that marriage occurred during his rise, when a public image is still being formed and the pressure to keep winning is constant.
When you’re climbing professionally, you’re not just busy—you’re hungry. You say yes to projects because saying no feels risky. That kind of momentum can strengthen a relationship if both people feel like they’re building something together. It can also strain a relationship if the life you’re building starts to pull you in different directions.
By the time their marriage ended in 1994, Costner’s name was already firmly established. The divorce became part of public conversation, as celebrity divorces often do, but the more meaningful truth is quieter: long marriages end for complicated reasons, and fame rarely makes those reasons simpler.
Christine Baumgartner: Kevin Costner’s second ex-wife
Christine Baumgartner is Kevin Costner’s second ex-wife. She’s often described as a designer and former model, and she became a major public figure during their marriage because the relationship lasted nearly two decades and included children.
Costner and Baumgartner began dating in the late 1990s, then married in 2004. Compared to the Cindy Silva era, this chapter came later in his life—after the first wave of superstardom and after he’d already experienced the reality of a high-profile divorce.
In other words, this wasn’t a “fame just hit us” marriage. This was a “we already know what celebrity life costs” marriage. That doesn’t guarantee a perfect outcome, but it does change the context. When someone enters a second marriage after living through a public split, the relationship usually carries more caution, more boundary-setting, and often more intentional choices about family life.
Kevin Costner’s children with Christine Baumgartner
Kevin Costner and Christine Baumgartner share three children:
Cayden Costner
Hayes Costner
Grace Costner
This is one of the biggest reasons the divorce drew so much attention: it wasn’t just the end of a long relationship, it was also a co-parenting situation involving minors. When public figures divorce with young children, the conversation gets louder and more invasive, even though the reality usually comes down to the same priorities most parents have: stability, schedules, and what the kids need day to day.
When Kevin Costner and Christine Baumgartner divorced
Christine Baumgartner filed for divorce in May 2023, and the divorce was finalized in February 2024. Their separation date was listed as April 11, 2023 in court filings.
The reason you see multiple dates floating around online is that celebrity divorces have several “milestones” that get reported as if each one is the end. In reality, there’s the separation date, the filing date, and then the finalization date—each one meaningful in a different way.
If you want the cleanest version: the marriage ended legally in February 2024, after a split that became public in 2023.
Why the second divorce became so public
Some divorces stay quiet. This one didn’t, largely because it involved public legal filings, discussions around finances, and child support decisions. When a divorce includes contested issues, the process can become a storyline whether the people involved want it to or not.
It’s also worth saying plainly: Kevin Costner is not a “small celebrity.” He’s an Oscar-winning filmmaker, a long-running box office name, and the face of major modern TV success. That level of fame turns personal life into public curiosity—sometimes to an unfair degree.
But the core truth beneath the noise is still basic: two people ended a long marriage and had to work out parenting and financial arrangements afterward.
What about the “other” relationship people mention?
When you research Costner’s personal life, you’ll often see a third name appear: Bridget Rooney. She is not an ex-wife, but she is the mother of Costner’s son Liam, who was born in the mid-1990s. This is where some quick bios confuse people, because they list “children from multiple relationships” and readers assume that means multiple marriages.
So if you’re trying to keep the record straight:
Kevin Costner has two ex-wives (Cindy Silva and Christine Baumgartner) and seven children total, including one son from a relationship that was not a marriage.
Quick facts (short and clean)
- Kevin Costner has two ex-wives: Cindy Silva and Christine Baumgartner.
- He married Cindy Silva in 1978 and divorced in 1994.
- He married Christine Baumgartner in 2004; the divorce was finalized in February 2024.
- He has seven children total, including three with Cindy and three with Christine.