Inside YouTube millionaire Jackson O’Doherty’s wild world
Take a look inside the out-of-this-world Gold Coast home owned by millionaire influencer Jackson O’Doherty.
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There are two gigantic dementors in the cavernous home of YouTuber and social media prankster Jackson O’Doherty – a property bought sight unseen, for a street record price.
The new-age millionaire, who made between $5 to $6m last year thanks to OnlyFans subscriptions, is not afraid to laugh at himself – or spend big money on things that make him happy.
This includes twin 5m-plus wraithlike creatures inspired by the Harry Potter series, which are all that remain of Jackson’s $100,000 Halloween house-warming party.
With 2.2m followers on Instagram, 11m on Facebook and a YouTube fanbase of 2.71m, Jackson is the poster boy of the social media revolution, with the kind of pulling power that pays for a “six-star resort”.
The 670sq m home – easily the largest in a quiet tightly held street where land blocks don’t come smaller than 4,000sq m – sits within the premium River Downs Estate in Helensvale on the Gold Coast.
Renowned for its unique eight-sided design, the previous owners gutted it in a million dollar renovation, erasing the decadent 1980s, including filling in a pool at the centre of the massive living room, and in the process, turning it into 2021 coastal opulence fit for any Aussie playboy. They needn’t have bothered for all the attention Jackson paid to the indoors when he spotted the listing.
“I was still in America,” he says, “and I just got notified about this unique house in Helensvale which is the next suburb over from where I was living. I just saw the pool, the tennis court, the firepit, the gazebo, the bar outside. I sent it to Lacclan (Gottfried, his manager) and said even if the inside of this house is shite and sucks, we’re getting this.”
It was a visual feast for the prolific video content producer – somewhere to work and stay comfortably.
“It’s probably well over $3m now considering all the other things I’ve done since I’ve been here. Little bits and things, even extra solar is going to cost about $30,000.”
His housemates include girlfriend Maddy Belle who recently completed quarantine after flying in from the US, his manager Lacclan, cameraman Harry, and two other friends.
“Anywhere else in the world you see me, I don’t care if it’s in the cinemas, restaurant, at the shops, beach, come up and say hello. We can have a mad conversation, take pictures, do what you want to do … but this (home) is the only place on earth where I would like to be left alone,” he says.
“I want to be able to feel comfortable, content, and safe inside my own home and for the most part it’s been pretty good even in my other house.”
Jackson’s other house is on Hope Island – a property he hopes to house his father Sean in during early retirement after borders reopen to New South Wales.
“He’s worked religiously hard his whole life, a good part of the past 40-to-45 years doing tiling and he wanted a bit of a change. So I said you can come up, take the house for a couple of years for free.”
He convinced his father to sell the family home in Port Stephens, Nelson Bay, where they’d been “a normal average family, never with a lot of money but we never went without food or a roof over our head”. “They did a great job,” he says of his parents. “It’s made me very appreciative and grateful for what I’ve got, so I want to give back.”
The family, which includes dad Sean, mum Janine and sister Isla, is tight-knit.
“There’s been a few questionable moments but they trust me,” says Jackson.
Despite spending the first few weeks in Octagon House recovering from herniated discs, Jackson has rediscovered an old love – tennis. “I grew up having a bit of a hit around for fun, but we never played competitively and were never really that good, but we’re getting all right now.”
It helps when you have a hit out with Aussie tennis pro player Bernard Tomic in your backyard. “We had a bit of a hit,” says Jackson.
“It was a pretty funny day.” He feels for those in the limelight like pro athletes. “Bernard gets a lot of criticism and a lot of backlash here and there … I think he’s just a bit misunderstood.”
Jackson’s attitude is people will say what they want regardless.
“People can say what they want. I’m happy, I’m secure, I’m content with who I am, and where I am in life.” The new grown-up Jackson is a world away from the late teen a decade ago trying to make a name for himself online while holding down two jobs – one in the pub and the other as a tiling apprentice with his dad.
“I’m steering away from that a little bit, doing something a little different now.”
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