Kevin Costner needs family by his side more than ever.
The former Yellowstone actor is going into his third Christmas season as a bachelor, following his headline-making, legally challenging split from his wife Christine Baumgartner in 2023.
He is keeping busy by hosting and narrating a new Christmas special, Kevin Costner Presents: The First Christmas, which will premiere on ABC December 9, but is still also hoping to give his kids as best of a Christmas as possible.
© InstagramSpeaking with Entertainment Tonight about his holiday plans, Kevin confessed: "I've had a great life, but this is a moment where I really need family, I need my family around me right now."
"So while [the kids] split homes, they do that, I'm trying to smell as good as I can and look as good as I can and I look forward to when they're all here." Kevin shares kids Cayden, 18, Hayes, 16, and Grace, 15, with Christine, who earlier this year tied the knot with financier Josh Connor.
He is also a dad to daughters Annie, 41, and Lily, 39, and and son Joe, 37, who he shares with ex-wife Cindy Silva, and to son Liam, 28, who he shares with ex Bridget Rooney.
© Getty ImagesFurther speaking about his holiday plans and how traditions have changed over the years, Kevin told Us Weekly: "I think when they were younger, there were things that were more repetitive," adding: "Now you're just fighting to get them home from college or fight. … You know what I mean, just getting together. So, I do the best I can to make it as warm as I can."
"And I'm a bachelor, so I kind of miss those, like, really cute things to do, you know," he noted, and emphasis: "So I have to work especially hard to make sure there's that stuff that they think about and remember."
And while Christmas might be increasingly different for Kevin, this one, thanks to the release of The First Christmas, does mark a full circle moment for him, who got his start in acting with his local church's nativity plays.
© Getty Images"My life revolved around the church," he recalled to ET, noting: "My mom was in the choir, my grandmother was the choir director. It just was a foundational thing for me."
© Facebook"It's a very easy thing to poke fun at, religion," he added, though maintained: "I believe there have been hands on me, on my family. It's not like I have lived a life without being bruised, I have, but I thought what was important was for people to know that this has been part of my life, and I wanted the cynic to join us too."
Kevin, who was raised Baptist, was born in Lynnwood, California in 1955 and grew up in Compton. His mother Sharon Rae Costner (née Tedrick) was a welfare worker, and his father William was an electrician and a utilities executive.
