Kevin Costner gets honest about the rumors he's dating Jewel
Those rumors about Kevin Costner dating Jewel are nothing more than just that — rumors.
The actor, who stars in, produced, directed and co-wrote the upcoming Western epic “Horizon: An American Saga,” shot down the talk that they are a couple.
“No, Jewel and I are friends. We’ve never gone out, ever,” he said June 18 in an interview with Howard Stern. “She’s special, and I don’t want these rumors to ruin our friendship because that’s what we have. She’s special to me. She’s beautiful enough to go out with.”
As for how the chatter started, Costner said it stems from a visit to Richard Branson’s private island in the British Virgin Islands.
“We were down at Branson’s island. She has a foundation, which I didn’t know, and she was part of the foundation. And Richard Branson had been asking me for years to come down to Necker Island, and so I finally did,” he said.
“I’m divorced all of a sudden. I’m a single father, and he’s asked me for 10 years to come down there. I said, ‘Well, I guess I’ll go down.’”
The “Bull Durham” star said he visited with Jewel, Emma Watson and some other people who aren’t famous and he “had some tremendous conversations with” both of them.
Costner said he was on a private plane with nine other people, but the rumor was it was just him and Jewel.
“I don’t want the press to ruin this for us, because I’ve had conversations with her, textwise, and she’s so smart, and she’s been through a lot herself, and so we have a friendship. We don’t have a romance, and we’ve not dated,” he said. “She’s beautiful and smart enough for all those things. It just has never happened for us.”
“She’s everything you might think, but it just hasn’t happened,” he added.
Jewel had previously broken her silence about the rumors that she and Costner are dating — though she stopped short of confirming or denying a romance between the pair.
The "Who Will Save Your Soul" singer, 50, was asked about the "Yellowstone" star, 69, during an April interview with Elle. "He’s a great person,” she responded while blushing, the magazine noted.
“The public fascination is intense for sure," she added of the romance chatter.
Jewel and Costner first sparked romance rumors in December after TMZ published photos of the two looking cozy together the month before at a charity event for Jewel’s Inspiring Children Foundation held on Branson's Necker Island.
Several days before, the "Foolish Games" singer gave Costner a shoutout for mentoring the foundation's kids when she wrote about the fundraiser on Instagram.
“Every year, my foundation @inspiringchildren and I go to Necker Island to help host a tennis event w @richardbranson to raise funds for our kids,” Jewel captioned a montage of pics from the event on Nov. 28. “@kevincostnermodernwest was kind enough to mentor our kids this year, and Sir Richard was his usual inspiring self- who also plays a mean game of doubles!”
Among the pics in her carousel was a group shot featuring herself and Costner posing with others on a beach.
The photos of the pair came nearly seven months after Costner's ex-wife, Christine Baumgartner, filed for divorce on May 1, 2023, after 18 years of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences.
Costner and Baumgartner share three teenage children: Cayden, Hayes and Grace.
After months of contentious legal petitions and court filings, the former couple settled their divorce in September 2023.
Jewel was previously married from 2008 to 2014 to rodeo star Ty Murray. The former spouses share a 12-year-old son named Kase.
During her recent interview with Elle, Jewel commented about her "painful" split with Murray, noting that it prompted her to restructure her life and her career.
“Realizing I was going to be a single mom at 40, and that the music job is just moving 24/7, I knew I had a big decision to make,” said the singer.
She added, "For me, motherhood inspired a whole new level of healing, a new set of behavioral tools, and required creating a different life that had more stability because the music industry is just incredibly unstable."
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
