Kevin Costner and Jewel are “having fun” as their new romance heats up — and they have a mutual friend to thank!
“Richard [Branson] is 100 percent responsible for Kevin and Jewel hooking up,” the Daily Mail reported Monday. “She has been a friend of Branson’s for years and he has been a close friend of Kevin’s since the 1990s.”
A source alleged to the outlet that the duo’s “hookup happened organically” after the businessman, 73, invited Jewel to hold her charity fundraiser on his private Caribbean island in November.
“They hit it off well and Jewel seems to be happy about it,” the insider claimed.
Although the pair are “not serious,” the outlet reported that the singer “has a light in her that has not been there in quite some time.”
The Grammy winner, 49, reportedly “likes a man’s man” and “is all about Kevin’s country western vibe.”
News broke last week that Costner, 68, and Jewel are dating following their respective divorces from Christine Baumgartner and Ty Murray.
After “flirty” pictures surfaced of the pair cuddled up during a trip to the British Virgin Islands for Jewel’s Inspiring Children Foundation, TMZ called the relationship “rather new.”
An eyewitness said “there was definitely something going on” between them during the November fundraiser.
“When they were together, it was like they both just lit up,” the source recalled on Friday.
“You could tell they were trying to be discreet, but anybody who saw them could tell something was going on.”
Jewel gave the “Yellowstone” alum a brief shoutout while gushing about the event via Instagram last month, praising the “kind” actor.
The “Standing Still” singer was previously married to Murray, 54, from 2008 to 2014, and they share a 12-year-old son named Kase.
As for Costner and Baumgartner, the exes have co-parented their three kids — Cayden, 16, Hayes, 14, and Grace, 13 — since splitting earlier this year.
Costner and the handbag designer’s contentious breakup made headlines for months before they settled their divorce in September.
