Yellowstone star Kevin Costner has made a rare public comment about his divorce from ex-wife Christine Baumgartner.

The pair, who had been married since 2004, filed for divorce in 2023. They reached a settlement earlier this year and the actor said in a new interview that the former couple “just weren’t able to go the distance”.

“It’s really about the children,” he told People, with the couple sharing custody of their three kids.

“You just do it. You just keep talking, you keep coaching [the kids], you keep interested in what they’re interested in.”

christine baumgartner and kevin costner

Referring to his previous marriage to Cindy Silva, which ended in 1994, the star reflected: “It was something I had to think about 20 years ago, when I agreed to be married [again]. I had been divorced once and that was rough with kids.”

He further explained that he and Baumgartner “just weren’t able to go the distance,” though said she was a “good partner [and] good mother”.

“That was my fear and so I’m kind of living with that right now. But that’s life,” he added.

Costner further admitted that “so many things were in motion” with his work on multi-part new movie Horizon: An American Saga, and “there was just nothing [he] could do”.

christine baumgartner and kevin costner

Meanwhile, the actor recently defended casting his son Hayes in Horizon, telling Metro: “(Hayes) had never acted before and I don’t automatically give parts to my children because I know how coveted this is.

“There’s young people that would do anything to have a part in a movie, and I want those kids to emerge,” Costner added, saying if his children are not interested, he’s “not going to automatically give them something”.

“I’m also a father and it was a part that wasn’t that long – and I wanted him to be close to me,” he continued.

“I was away from home, I needed my family close to me, and it was a way for me to trap him. I thought he was just beautiful in the movie.”

Yellowstone airs on Paramount+.