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.
Single Life Gets Serious with a Live-in Girlfriend
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.
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.
A Steamy 1999 Rumor Enrages John Travolta
By 1999, when Costner was filming 'For the Love of the Game', it wasn’t a professional baseball player pal he ticked off. Instead, it was an actor colleague. Apparently, men do not appreciate rumors of their wife hooking up with Kevin Costner. 'For the Love of the Game' co-star Kelly Preston, who happened to be married to John Travolta, became the focus of a brief tabloid flare-up.
While working on the film, the gossip press asserted the couple’s romance spilled from the storyline and the set into more intimate, offscreen places. National Enquirer published a story claiming that Travolta was “furious.” Neither Costner nor Preston addressed the press allegations. Meanwhile, Travolta and Preston remained married. And, Costner was just on the cusp of meeting “the one.”
Could It Be True Love?
Kevin Costner’s long and winding quest to find the perfect wife after divorcing Cindy took him down a new path that collided directly with Christine Baumgartner’s. Another beautiful model would don his arm, as the fashion handbag designer and much younger beauty fell in love with the double-Oscar winning 'Dances With Wolves' actor. As a coincidence, Baumgartner’s alma mater is California State University Fullerton, too.
They met while he was practicing golf for his role in 'Tin Cup' in the late 1980s. He was married then. But in 1998, when they ran into each other again, he was free and so was she. He got her phone number and said he would call her in two weeks. It caught the actor off guard. He said, “When I met Christine, I wasn’t prepared to be in love again. It took me a long time before I said, ‘I love you’ to her, a long time.’” Long story short, they began dating, despite the 20-year age difference.