A new year, a new lifestyle. In 1996, Costner and Australian model Elle Macpherson started dating. Charmed by the amazing celeb model, actress, businesswoman, and TV host, their relationship progressed into “serious” territory posthaste.
Costner gushed, “I feel I have met my equal with this beautiful, talented, funny and lovely person.” Within months the couple moved in together. The singles lifestyle gave way to domestic stability, no matter how short-lived. It was over by the end of the year.
Cal Ripken, Jr. vs. Kevin Costner
Cal Ripken was on a game-playing streak in 1997 when he had an alleged breakdown that prevented him from starting that night, as he had consecutively for a span of over five years. To help preserve his record, a Baltimore Orioles employee orchestrated a lighting malfunction, or it happened coincidentally. Regardless, the outcome was that the game was called.
In a serious check on guest manners, a personal friend of Costner’s, Cal Ripken, was rumored to have returned to his house after leaving for the day to play a game. He had forgotten something. Next, according to some versions, when Ripken arrived at his home, he caught Kevin Costner in his bed with his wife, Kelly. Costner is rumored to have gotten such a beating he was unable to do any publicity, just at the time he was wrapping up with 'The Postman'.
'Good Morning America' Host Joan Lunden Falls for Costner
At the peak of his fame, right in the middle of 'Waterworld', and at the height of his 1995 dating deluge, Costner found a new friend. Would this one be his true love? A romance with Joan Lunden, ABC’s popular 'Good Morning America' host who manned the desk until 1997, was sending off sparks. His new love tangle with the American journalist, author, and TV host was a hot story in media circles, and with 'Waterworld' promotion coinciding, a lightning storm of tabloid and media attention was so intense it severed the couple’s relationship.
Apparently, Costner romanced the TV journalist quite lavishly. He took her out on the open sea in a lovely yacht for a special date. As Lunden recalls, “He got this yacht and we sailed around New York Harbor and had dinner.” She said, “It was quite romantic and quite beautiful". The charming prince wouldn’t stay long, after being spooked by a hounding media, it seems. “I think Kevin and I would have dated longer had it not been for the unbelievable press focus on us,” Lunden said.
A European Fling Interrupts a Serious Relationship
Italian-French Supermodel and pop singer Carla Bruni, known as France’s First Lady after dating French president Nicolas Sarkozy, was wooed by Kevin Costner as well. Their dating didn’t last. But, Bruni, one of the world’s first supermodels, also broke up with Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, so he was in good company.
Just as it seemed Costner was ready to tie the knot again with beauty Elle Macpherson, he slipped into another affair and then back into bachelorhood.
1997 Was a Good Year for Costner
Two successful films lifted Costner into the coveted realm of actor accolades. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his outstanding performance in 'Tin Cup' (1996) and was honored with a nomination for a Saturn Award for his 1997 film 'The Postman'. And then the year got a little better.
He met news anchor Tawny Little. He dated the Miss America pageant winner secretly in 1997 and 1998. Costner wasn’t the first celeb Little dated. She had relationships with Ron Silver and Burt Reynolds, as well.