Despite being celebrities with multi-million dollar mansions, not everything is sunshine and roses in Hollywood. After all, considering the intrusive paparazzi, the high price of homes and much more, moving out to a calmer place, be it Brevard, North Carolina, or Hailey, Idaho, seems quite enticing.
Marvel star Mark Ruffalo, for example, moved to Sullivan County in upstate New York with his wife and kids for a calmer life. “The whole guiding idea for living upstate was to simplify,” Ruffalo told Nowness. “We asked ourselves, what do we need all this shit for? What is it adding to our lives?”
Ruffalo’s co-star Chris Pratt also moved away from Tinseltown, making a home for himself and his family in San Juan Island, Washington. As any follower of Pratt could tell you, he’s now well adjusted to farm life, raising pigs and sheep. “They will spend their entire lives thriving at the farm, until they pass naturally many, many years from now,” Pratt wrote lovingly on Instagram.
To find out what other celebrities packed their bags and moved away from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles or New York City, scroll below!
Richard Gere
Richard Gere opened up about his plans to move to Spain in an appearance The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in November 2024.
“My wife is Spanish and—is this a problem for anybody out there?” he joked. As a reminder, Gere has been married to wife Alejandra Silva since 2018.
“Of course I’ll be back!” Gere continued. “My wife is Spanish and she gave me about seven years here, so we’re going to spend some years in Madrid.”
“Our kids are bilingual,” he added. “So they’re gonna flourish there.”
Gere and Silva share kids Alexander, born in 2018, and James, born in 2019. Gere also shares another son, Homer, with his second wife, Carey Lowell.
Ellen DeGeneres & Portia de Rossi
While Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are known for making major real estate moves, The Wrap recently reported that the couple has moved across the pond to the UK.
Per the outlet, they’ve moved from Montecito, California, to the Cotswolds, a rural area in south-central England. A source told the media outlet that the results of the 2024 presidential election were “their primary motivation” for leaving ahead of Donald Trump’s second term in the White House.
Eva Longoria
Following the 2024 presidential election, Eva Longoria opened up about moving out of the US with her husband and son and living in between Spain and Mexico.
“But even before [the pandemic], [the country] was changing. The vibe was different,” Longoria told Marie Claire. “And then Covid happened, and it pushed it over the edge. Whether it’s the homelessness or the taxes, not that I want to s— on California—it just feels like this chapter in my life is done now.”
“I’m privileged,” she added. “I get to escape and go somewhere. Most Americans aren’t so lucky. They’re going to be stuck in this dystopian country, and my anxiety and sadness is for them.”
America Ferrera
While she may not have moved just yet, reports in November 2024 confirmed Barbie star America Ferrera was planning on moving to London due to the elections.
“America is sick that Donald Trump is President again,” an insider told Daily Mail. “She is devastated that Kamala lost. She thought the country she lived in was better than that.”
“She is going to continue to have a presence in the US for work purposes and to fight for Latinas and women, but she will be overseas for family and to benefit her kids’ education,” the course continued. “She wants them to have the best opportunities possible and to her, being overseas for that is what is important.”
“She’s not abandoning the US, she is prioritizing her life and focusing on the importance for her kids,” the source clarified.
Zayn Malik
British singer Zayn Malik has made a life for himself in rural Pennsylvania for quite a few years now.
“I’m quite an outdoorsy person—I did fall in love with the landscapes and serenity,” Malik told Elle. “You get a lot of time to really think about things.”
According to the former 1D member, his move happened when his former partner Gigi Hadid got pregnant with their daughter Khai.
“When I found out that my partner at the time was pregnant, I pretty quickly made up my mind that this would be a great place to raise a child because there’s so much for her to do here,” he recalled. “So, we do spend a lot of time outside. We do the gardening. She likes to camp with me. We cook outside. We fish a little bit. And she’s really into it, too, so it makes it fun. Hopefully, we can create some amazing memories here.”
Mark Wahlberg
Mark Wahlberg has also moved out of tinseltown and into the state of Nevada instead. “To be able to give my kids a better life and follow and pursue their dreams — whether it be my daughter as an equestrian, my son as a basketball player, my younger son as a golfer — this made a lot more sense for us,” said in an interview with The Talk. Wahlberg, who is married to his wife Rhea Durham, has four kids: daughters Grace, 13, and Ella, 20, and sons Brendan, 15, and Michael, 17.
Blake Shelton & Gwen Stefani
Earlier this year, Gwen Stefani opened up about moving to Tishomingo, Oklahoma, with her kids and her husband Blake Shelton. “When we get to Oklahoma, we’re constantly working — and it’s a different kind of work,” she told People. “It’s probably what my mom was doing back in the day, and now I get it!”
“I am not really a dirt person, a bug person, I don’t like that much humidity,” Stefani admitted. “But it’s so beautiful [in Oklahoma], and you kind of feel like you’re going into this vortex. Nature — and God — is all right there.”
James & Kimberly Van Der Beek
Back in 2020, James Van Der Beek revealed that he and his wife Kimberly moved to Texas from Los Angeles with their six kids.
“We wanted to get the kids out of Los Angeles. We wanted to give them space and we wanted them to live in nature,” the Dawson’s Creel alum told Austin Life magazine. “When we were flying here for our anniversary, I felt an energy to Austin … It was really cool to realize, ‘Oh, I can go be there. We can drop in and bring our family to that.'”
Katherine Schwarzenegger & Chris Pratt
In addition to being a Marvel star, Chris Pratt gets busy running his farm in San Juan Island, Washington, with his wife Katherine Schwarzenegger and their kids. In 2019, for example, Schwarzenegger awarded Pratt with two Kunekune piglets. “We named them Tim and Faith because they’re beautiful and their love is palpable and inspiring,” Pratt wrote on Instagram. “I love them and can’t wait to watch them grow.”
“They are the newest members of the Friendly Kingdom, select animals including sheep, goats, and pigs who we’ve pardoned,” Pratt continued. “They will spend their entire lives thriving at the farm, until they pass naturally many, many years from now.” How sweet!
Guy Ritchie & Madonna
Madonna chose to leave behind the city of dreams for love. The pop sensation married English screenwriter, film director and producer Guy Ritchie in 2000, and decided to move to London with him.
“I moved here for love. No other reason. I never thought in a million years I’d live in London,” she revealed during an interview, Digital Spy reports. However, after their divorce in 2008, she eventually decided to move back to NYC.
Bruce Willis & Demi Moore
Much like Madonna and Ritchie, Demi Moore and Bruce Willis craved the quiet life when they got married. In 1996, the former pair decided to leave Los Angeles, California and move to Hailey, Idaho, with their three daughters. The reason for their move was to concentrate on their family and avoid the constant media scrutiny.
After their divorce in 2000, Willis returned to Los Angeles while Moore continued living in both Idaho and Los Angeles.
Adrian Grenier
The Devil Wears Prada star Adriana Grenier also moved to Austin, Texas, after living for years in Los Angeles. “When COVID hit, it further emphasized how paramount things like family, nature, and community are,” the actor told Austin Monthly. “I’ve owned a house in town since 2016, but all of these factors compelled me to come down here full-time last year. I just wanted something a little closer to the earth, somewhere without a lot of pomp and circumstance. A place where I could get my hands dusty.”
Tom Selleck
Although he’s not too far from Los Angeles, Blue Bloods star Tom Selleck moved away from the hustle and bustle of Hollywood in 1988 to a ranch in Ventura, California. “My relationships and my ranch keep me sane,” the actor told People. “I do grunt work and I make the rounds,” he says of his ranch life. “I like watching things grow. It’s a retreat.”
Amy Smart & Carter Oosterhouse
In 2018, Amy Smart and her husband Carter Oosterhouse opened up about sharing their time between Los Angeles and their home in Traverse City, Michigan. “We love being here,” Smart said to People. “You’re surrounded by nature, and it’s so serene. We really find our peace and harmony in this setting.”
As for their future plans, it looks like the pair could see the move as permanent sometime soon. “Carter thinks we’ll permanently move here one day, but we’ll see,” Smart shared. “To see your daughter run around with the people you went to school with and their kids, it puts a huge smile on my face,” Oosterhouse added.
John Mayer
According to People, John Mayer made some major real estate changes in 2012 when he sold his New York City and Los Angeles homes and bought a home in Montana. Quiet life it is!
Mark Ruffalo
A few years ago, Marvel star Mark Ruffalo also moved out of New York City and to upstate New York in Sullivan County, to be precise. “The whole guiding idea for living upstate was to simplify,” Ruffalo told Nowness. “We asked ourselves, what do we need all this shit for? What is it adding to our lives?”
“We’re letting them grow a little wild and we step in when it’s essential, but in a lot of ways they figure stuff out on their own and they do it in a way that’s organic and lasts,” Ruffalo said of his kids Kean, 22, Bella, 18, and Odette, 16. “We live in a small space and we’re really influenced by the natural world around us. Eventually that is reflected in one’s behavior and how you get along with other people. There’s a lot of quiet in the country and there’s a lot of quietness in my children.”
Jeff Daniels
Back in 1986, The Newsroom star Jeff Daniels moved with his wife Kathleen and their three kids to Michigan. According to the actor, the decision was in the hopes “to create as much a sense of normalcy as possible,” he told People. “It was a very dramatic move in 1986 to move to Michigan, but that was to keep the family number one. And that worked.”
Looking back, Daniels has no regrets on the cross-country move. “Kathleen’s permanent. The family’s permanent,” he said. “Careers are job to job, you’re hot, you’re not.”
Michael Keaton
For Birdman star Michael Keaton, buying his thousand-acre property in Montana opened his eyes to the vastness of the world and life itself. “As soon as I bought this place – and it was a dream of mine from time I was a little kid – it hit me. It was crystal clear that I don’t really own anything,” he told CBS News. “You don’t really, we’re renters. You know, I don’t own this. I just happened to make a transaction.”
Katherine Heigl
Katherine Heigl has also opened up about why she left the glitz and the glam for a simple life in Utah. “I would come home angry and frustrated that I’d missed everything with my kid that day,” she told Good Housekeeping back in 2014 of her eldest daughter Naleigh, now 13 years old. “I didn’t get to wake her up from her nap or do bath time or bedtime. I’d have to sneak into her room and kiss her when she was sleeping, hoping not to wake her up.”
“I felt like my priorities were messed up,” she continued. “I was putting so much time and energy into just my work, but I was raised [to believe] that family comes first.”
Per the interview, Heigl and her husband Josh Kelley loved the change of pace. “Josh and I are into this quiet life,” she said. “Neither of us likes the traffic and the chaos of Los Angeles. It’s overwhelming.”
Steve Martin
In addition to starring in the hit TV show Only Murders in the Building, Steve Martin also collaborates with a bluegrass band, the Steep Canyon Rangers, in Brevard, North Carolina. “It’s so funny, that music’s actually a bigger part of my life than even I think it is,” he told WNC magazine. “The Rangers are there, and that’s when you have the time, when you’re not at your computer or driving around and doing things, and that’s where I like to play most.”
Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban
Like many others in this list, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban also share their time between Los Angeles and and a quieter second home. For the pair, it’s Nashville, Tennessee. “Obviously I work hard, but when I’m off, I’m off,” Kidman told Harper’s Bazaar. “Keith and I are very good at immediately clicking off because we have a really good life in Nashville that’s very simple, quiet and nourishing because we’ve made it like that.”
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