Rumors That Yellowstone Star Kevin Costner Couldn't Escape

Kevin Costner has been a professional actor for decades and has been a bona fide movie star for nearly his entire career. During that time, he's appeared in some of the most successful films ever made — as well as some of Hollywood's biggest-ever box office bombs, including "Waterworld" and "The Postman," to name a few. After so many years in the public eye, walking red carpets and promoting films, Costner was bound to find himself at the center of speculation and rumors.

Costner has also cultivated an air of privacy, living life out of the public eye as much as possible. The downside to this, however, is that when things do get messy in his life, those events make for much splashier headlines and lead to juicer gossip. With his two very public divorces, numerous romantic entanglements, and tumultuous time on the set of his megahit modern Western "Yellowstone," there's been no shortage of drama for tabloids to salivate over.

Regardless of his two Oscar wins, his countless iconic performances, and his career revitalizing performance as John Dutton on "Yellowstone," Costner is still contending with a number of salacious rumors and even urban legends about his personal life. From reports of infidelity to love life rumors linking him to other A-listers, to stories about heated on-set feuds, here are the biggest rumors Kevin Costner has not been able to shake.

Since its premiere, "Yellowstone" has been one of the buzziest and most binge-worthy TV dramas in memory. The show launched an entire multi-generational fictional universe with numerous other TV series prequels featuring several Oscar winners, and creator Taylor Sheridan has forged a media empire — all because of the captivating work of the show's talented cast. That cast included Kevin Costner, marking the first time he ever starred as a series regular on a TV show.

However, after four seasons, things reportedly began to fall apart. Tensions began to mount on the "Yellowstone" set, with many claiming that Costner's ego was driving a wedge between himself, the cast, and Sheridan. His paycheck had also ballooned due to the show's success. When "Yellowstone" began, he was making an impressive $500,000 per episode. By the start of Season 5, he was taking home $1.3 million per episode, making him one of the highest-paid actors on television. But even the massive paycheck couldn't keep Costner from butting heads with the show's creator and wanting to walk away.

According to the actor, however, reports of his behavior on set were unfairly represented and he didn't have any issue with the show or his castmates. "I loved the show," Costner told People in June 2024. "I liked the people on the show. I liked what it was about. I love that world." According to the actor, the reason for his ultimate departure was due to delays in production and wanting to work on his own projects. While Costner had expressed a willingness to return to the show in the future, his character was written off in the second half of the fifth and final season.

In May 2023, Kevin Costner and Christine Baumgartner filed for divorce after 19 years of marriage. At the time, Costner's rep released a statement that expressed how surprised and powerless the actor felt in the face of his second marriage falling apart. "It is with great sadness that circumstances beyond his control have transpired which have resulted in Mr. Costner having to participate in a dissolution of marriage action," Costner's rep said to People at the time.

Their divorce was messy and wildly contentious, with Baumgartner refusing to move out of their shared home and asking the court to award her eye-watering sums in spousal support payments. The pugnacious pair struck out at one another repeatedly until cheating rumors began to surface and Baumgartner's lawyers filed a motion demanding that Costner hand over documents relating to "any extramarital romantic relationships." Then, the popular rumor mill DeuxMoi (via PerezHilton) picked up a story from an unnamed source that claimed that everyone in Montana, where "Yellowstone" is shot, has heard that Costner "got some local Montana girl pregnant and that's why his wife is leaving him. Apparently, it's been the gossip going around the Montana locals for weeks now."

Costner's people quickly shut this down – and his lawyers also accused Baumgartner of possible infidelity as well. Eventually, their divorce was settled in February 2024, but Costner has been adamant that infidelity, at least on his part, never played a role in his marriage eventually crumbling.

Jennifer Lopez's divorce from Ben Affleck after a brief two-year shot at marriage dominated headlines for months in 2024. It was perhaps one of the only divorces that grabbed more headlines in recent memory than Kevin Costner's bitter split from his ex-wife, Christine Baumgartner. Apparently, as newly single movie stars, somehow Costner and Lopez's paths crossed and, according to romance rumors, the pair have kicked off a flirty fling.

Both Costner and Lopez were spotted spending some time together at Kemo Sabe, a celeb hot spot in Aspen, Colorado, in December 2024, where they were joined by their respective families. It was reported later that Costner sent Lopez a magnum of champagne, a bouquet of flowers, and a hand-written note. Despite there not being any over displays of affection, that didn't stop the speculation from swirling.

Previously, Costner was linked to the singer-songwriter Jewel after they were photographed getting cozy while on a vacation to billionaire Richard Branson's private island. However, the "Horizon: An American Saga" star denied the romance rumors. "Jewel and I are friends. We've never gone out, ever. She's fantastic, she's special, and I don't want these rumors to ruin our friendship because that's what we have," Costner said during an appearance on "The Howard Stern Show" in June 2024. "We don't have a romance, and we've not dated. She's beautiful and smart enough for all those things – it just has never happened for us."

Long before Kevin Costner and Christine Baumgartner called it quits in 2023, the "Field of Dreams" star was embroiled in another big split from his first wife, Cindy Silva – which proved to be one of the most expensive celeb splits in Hollywood history. Like his divorce from Baumgartner, Costner's contentious first split was also surrounded by rumors of infidelity and disloyalty.

Costner and Silva first tied the knot in 1978, but their union crumbled in 1994, amid allegations that Costner had been unfaithful. According to a report by People at the time, rumors were swirling that Costner had an affair while in Hawaii, during the production of "Waterworld." It was alleged that Costner had slept with a married woman who worked as a hula dancer and entertainer at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel, where Costner was staying.

When reached for comment, the woman and her husband denied the allegations, as did Costner. Although Costner was previously alleged to have had an affair with a nightclub receptionist in the U.K., during the production of "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves." Ultimately, regardless of the veracity of the claims, Costner developed a reputation as a lothario that made it difficult when new rumors popped up during his 2023 divorce.

Cal Ripken Jr. is a true baseball legend with the MLB record for most consecutive games played at an astounding 2,632. The sport icon's record beat the previous record, held for decades by Lou Gehrig, by over 500 games. Needless to say, Ripken's streak was a big deal and very important to him and to his team, the Baltimore Orioles. So it's easy to understand why people might believe the urban legend that, in 1997, the Orioles intentionally caused an electrical problem to postpone a game after Ripken injured his hand and couldn't play, which would have ended his monumental streak.

So how did Ripken supposedly hurt his hand, according to this urban legend? Apparently, Ripken had come home to find his wife in bed with Kevin Costner, and he got into a huge scrap that led to him punching Costner in the face and injuring his hand. He supposedly went to the team and said he couldn't play that night. Instead of letting the streak die, the team allegedly caused an intentional blackout that took just long enough to fix to let Ripken's hand heal.

Is there any possible truth to this wild story? Well, Costner and Ripken did know each other, after meeting at one of Costner's movie premieres. But outside of that connection, there's little evidence that this legendary fight happened, and both have denied it. "If there is something alleged, I'd love to see someone come forward," Costner told Fox Sports Radio (via The Los Angeles Times) in 2021. "No one will, because they don't have the story to do it. There would be big money for a story like this, but it simply is not true."