Who Is Kimberly Buffington?
Kimberly Buffington is a Texas-based luxury real estate broker who became widely known to the public after her marriage to Hollywood actor Dennis Quaid. Kimberly Buffington was born on October 17, 1971, in Austin, Texas, and built a career in property brokerage long before her personal life ever made headlines.
Away from her connection to Quaid, she has spent decades working in residential real estate, much of it tied to her family’s homebuilding business, Buffington Signature Homes. Standing at 1.73 meters, she has never worked in entertainment herself; her public recognition comes entirely from her marriage, her divorce, and the family’s advocacy work following a medical crisis involving her children.
Key Details of Kimberly Buffington
| Detail | Information |
| Full Name | Kimberly Buffington |
| Date of Birth | October 17, 1971 |
| Age | 54 years |
| Birthplace | Austin, Texas, USA |
| Height | 1.73 m |
| Profession | Luxury real estate broker |
| Known For | Former wife of actor Dennis Quaid; patient safety advocate |
| Father | Tom Buffington, founder of Buffington Signature Homes |
| Spouse | Dennis Quaid (married July 4, 2004 – divorced April 2018) |
| Children | Zoe Grace Quaid and Thomas Boone Quaid (twins, born November 8, 2007) |
| Marital Status | Divorced |
| Current Residence | Los Angeles, California ($3.8 million home) |
| Net Worth | $3 million – $3.5 million |
Growing Up in Austin, Texas
When Kimberly Buffington was young, her world was shaped almost entirely by the real estate business. Her father, Tom Buffington, owned and operated Buffington Signature Homes, once regarded as the largest privately held homebuilding company in Austin. As a teenager, she rotated through different parts of her father’s company, including its custom interior design division, which gave her early, hands-on exposure to the housing industry.
By age 20, she had moved into on-site new home sales, and in her very first year on the job, she was named the company’s top-performing sales agent. Before fully settling into brokerage work, she also spent time in corporate sales, brand marketing, and advertising layout for several larger firms.
That mix of experience across sales, marketing, and interior design gave her exposure to nearly every side of the homebuilding business. It also set up the path she followed afterward: leaving the family company to work as an independent broker, a role she has held in Austin’s luxury housing market for most of her adult life, separate from Buffington Signature Homes itself.
Meeting and Marrying Dennis Quaid
In 2003, actor Brett Cullen introduced the two during a dinner gathering in Austin. Cullen had remained close to Quaid since they met in college theater productions back in the 1970s, and it was through that decades-long friendship that the introduction happened. The pair began dating soon after, and on July 4, 2004, they married in a private ceremony at Quaid’s ranch in Paradise Valley, Montana. The marriage made her Quaid’s third wife.
During those years, she was frequently referred to in the press as Kimberly Buffington-Quaid, a name tied specifically to her time as his spouse, though she reverted to her maiden name once the marriage ended. Some longtime followers of the couple still search for her under the older name Kimberly Buffington Quaid, a holdover from her years in the spotlight.
Altogether, the marriage between Dennis Quaid and Kimberly Buffington was marked by both public milestones and private struggles.
The Twins and a Medical Emergency
On November 8, 2007, the couple welcomed fraternal twins, Thomas Boone Quaid and Zoe Grace Quaid, born in Santa Monica, California, through a gestational surrogate — meaning the pregnancy was carried by another woman using the couple’s own genetic material, making Thomas and Zoe biologically their children.
Just ten days after their birth, the newborns were hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for a routine staph infection. During treatment, hospital staff mistakenly administered a dose of 10,000 units per milliliter of the blood thinner Heparin, instead of the prescribed pediatric dose of 10 units per milliliter — an error roughly 1,000 times the safe limit. Heparin is commonly used in hospitals to prevent blood clots, but because infants have so little margin for dosing error, a mistake at that scale can quickly become life-threatening. The twins suffered serious internal bleeding but ultimately made a full recovery with no lasting damage.
The incident pushed the family into a national conversation about hospital safety standards. They later secured a $750,000 settlement from the hospital, pursued legal action against the drug’s manufacturer, Baxter Healthcare, over confusing product labeling, and went on to co-found The Quaid Foundation, an organization dedicated to reducing medical errors and improving patient safety practices in hospitals. The lawsuit against Baxter specifically pointed to the similar packaging used for the adult and pediatric versions of Heparin, arguing that the near-identical labeling made mix-ups far more likely on a busy hospital floor.
A Turbulent Path to Divorce
The marriage was far from a straight line toward separation. In March 2012, she first filed for divorce, stating in court papers that the marriage was insupportable due to discord and a conflict of personalities — standard legal language used in Texas filings to describe an irreconcilable breakdown of the relationship — but withdrew the filing two months later. That same year, in October 2012, a second filing followed, this time for legal separation. The couple eventually reconciled, and a judge dismissed that case in September 2013.
It wasn’t until June 2016 that they announced their final split, with the divorce legally finalized in April 2018, closing out fourteen years of marriage.
As part of the settlement, she received a $2 million lump-sum spousal support payment along with an additional $1 million tied to property division. She also kept the family’s 2014 Mercedes, while proceeds from the sale of their shared home were divided between the two of them.
Custody Changes in 2022
Kimberly Buffington 2022 headlines centered on a formal update to her custody arrangement with Quaid. That April, court filings showed the former couple had revised their original 2018 divorce agreement to better suit their twins, who were 14 years old at the time. The changes mainly adjusted co-parenting logistics and scheduling as Thomas and Zoe moved further into their teenage years.
Financially, the update kept child support unchanged at $13,750 per month, a figure that stayed fixed until the twins reached adulthood. Outside of this filing, she kept a fairly low public profile that year, focusing on her real estate work while raising the twins largely from her home in California. In hindsight, the 2022 update functioned as a bridge between the original 2018 divorce terms and the eventual termination of child support that followed once the twins graduated in 2026.
Where Is Kimberly Buffington Now?
Kimberly Buffington today lives in a $3.8 million home in Los Angeles, where she continues working as a luxury real estate broker while her twins have entered adulthood. Her most recent developments involve a legal shift tied to child support.
In May 2026, Quaid filed a petition to officially end his monthly payments after both children turned 18 and completed high school — Zoe graduated on May 23, 2026, and Thomas followed on June 3, 2026. The original 2018 agreement had included a provision allowing the monthly amount to increase if Quaid earned more than $1.3 million in a given year; in his petition, he also asked that any such additional bonus payments be prorated only up through the twins’ graduation dates rather than continuing further.
She was formally served with the termination paperwork at her Los Angeles residence on June 29, 2026, with a court hearing on the matter scheduled for July 28, 2026. Kimberly Buffington now spends much of her time managing her independent real estate business, largely separate from the financial ties that once connected her to her ex-husband.
Net Worth and Financial Settlement
Kimberly Buffington net worth is estimated at $3 million to $3.5 million. Her finances have been shaped by her long career as a luxury real estate broker and the financial settlement from her divorce from Dennis Quaid.
As part of the 2018 divorce settlement, she received a $2 million lump-sum spousal support payment and an additional $1 million related to property division. She also received monthly child support while raising the twins. With those payments ending after their graduation in 2026, her ongoing income is now primarily tied to her real estate career.
Age and Personal Milestones
Kimberly Buffington age is currently 54, based on her October 17, 1971 birth date in Austin, Texas.
Looking back at her life in stages: she married Quaid at 32, became a mother to twins at 36, finalized her divorce at 46, and reached the current chapter of her life at 54, just as her children legally became adults. Each of these milestones lines up closely with major turning points in her relationship with Quaid, from the early years of marriage through the recent end of their financial obligations to one another.
Television Appearances and Public Life
Despite her connection to Hollywood, Kimberly Buffington movies are not part of her career — she has never worked as an actress. Her limited screen appearances have all been as herself. In 2008, she appeared alongside Quaid on 60 Minutes to discuss the Heparin overdose and its impact on their family, and she was also featured on Entertainment Tonight that same year discussing patient safety advocacy.
Beyond those interviews, she attended several film premieres as Quaid’s guest during their marriage, including American Dreamz, Vantage Point, The Express, and The Special Relationship. People sometimes confuse her with Quaid’s second wife, actress Meg Ryan, who built a career around romantic comedy films — a very different public path from the one Buffington has followed as a real estate professional.
Other People Who Share This Name
Not every search for this name points to the same person. Kimberly Buffington Crockrell is a retired BigLaw intellectual property and business law partner who once served as managing partner of Pillsbury’s Los Angeles office, a role tied to one of the country’s larger corporate law firms rather than to entertainment or real estate.
Separately, a Detroit-based Kimberly Buffington is a community activist and founder of Eden Gives, a Michigan nonprofit that works on food insecurity and urban agriculture, focusing on getting fresh produce into underserved neighborhoods. Neither of these women is connected to Dennis Quaid, but both occasionally appear in the same search results simply because they share her name.
Conclusion
Kimberly Buffington’s story extends well beyond her former marriage to Dennis Quaid. Her long career in luxury real estate, experience in the family homebuilding business, and role as a mother have shaped much of her life outside the spotlight.
Her years with Quaid brought significant public attention, particularly after the medical emergency involving their twins and the family’s subsequent patient-safety advocacy. After the marriage ended, she continued building a life centered on her children and professional work rather than maintaining a presence in Hollywood.
Now that her twins have reached adulthood, Buffington has entered a different stage of her life, with greater focus on her independent career and personal path. Her public story may have begun through her connection to a well-known actor, but her career and experiences ultimately give her identity beyond that association.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Who is Kimberly Buffington?
She is a Texas-based luxury real estate broker widely recognized as the former wife of Hollywood actor Dennis Quaid, with a career that began well before her marriage made headlines.
2. How old is she as of 2026?
She was born on October 17, 1971, in Austin, Texas, which makes her 54 years old in 2026, based on her recorded birth date.
3. What is her estimated net worth?
Her net worth falls between $3 million and $3.5 million, built mainly through her real estate brokerage career and her 2018 divorce settlement with Quaid.
4. What changed for Kimberly Buffington in 2022?
In April 2022, she and Quaid formally revised their 2018 custody agreement to better fit their twins’ teenage schedules, while their monthly child support stayed unchanged.
5. Who are her children with Dennis Quaid?
She shares fraternal twins, Thomas Boone Quaid and Zoe Grace Quaid, born via a gestational surrogate on November 8, 2007, in Santa Monica, California.
6. What happened to the twins shortly after birth?
Ten days after birth, the twins were mistakenly given a massive overdose of the blood thinner Heparin at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, though both fully recovered without lasting harm.
7. Is Kimberly Buffington an actress?
No, she has never worked as an actress; her only screen appearances have come as herself, including a 2008 interview on 60 Minutes about the Heparin overdose.
8. Why was she once known as Buffington-Quaid?
During her fourteen-year marriage, she was frequently referred to in the press as Buffington-Quaid, a name she dropped once the divorce was finalized in April 2018.
9. Where does Kimberly Buffington live now?
She currently lives in a $3.8 million home in Los Angeles, where she continues working as an independent luxury real estate broker while her twins have entered adulthood.
10. Is she related to any other public figures with the same name?
No, other people such as attorney Buffington Crockrell and a Detroit-based community activist share the same surname but have no connection to her or to Dennis Quaid.
