Despite months of media speculation over the nature of their relationship, Kevin Costner insists he and Jewel are not dating.
Appearing on “The Howard Stern Show” Tuesday, Costner said he and Jewel have had “tremendous conversations” in recent months, but clarified, “We’ve never gone out, ever.”
“We have a friendship, we don’t have a romance, and we’ve not dated,” the “Yellowstone” actor explained. “She’s beautiful and smart enough for all those things. It just has never happened for us.”
Elsewhere in the chat, he noted: “She’s special, and I don’t want these rumors to ruin our friendship, because that’s what we have.”
Costner and Jewel were first romantically linked in December, when TMZ published photographs of the pair looking cozy together in the British Virgin Islands.
At the time, People reported that there was “very big attraction on both sides,” adding that the relationship was “fresh but not brand new” by then.
The reports seemed auspiciously timed given that Costner and his wife of 19 years, Christine Baumgartner, had split just months previously. The former couple’s divorce was finalized in February.
Speaking to Elle in April, Jewel stayed coy on the subject of Costner.
“He’s a great person,” the four-time Grammy nominee said, adding that “the public fascination is intense for sure.”
In his chat with Stern, Costner said that some of his seven children had even begun to believe some of the discourse regarding their dad’s relationship with Jewel.
“I have to explain to my kids, ‘No,’” he quipped.
An Oscar winner for 1990s “Dances with Wolves,” Costner is currently promoting “Horizon: An American Saga,” which he also wrote and directed. The film hits theaters next week.
Watch a clip of Kevin Costner’s chat with Howard Stern below.
