Katy Perry splashes $13m on $22m California mansion
Orlando Bloom has been unexpectedly pulled into his fiancee Katy Perry’s bitter battle over a $22 million property.
Orlando Bloom has been dragged into his fiancee Katy Perry’s bitter legal battle with a dying veteran, who claims he was forced to surrender his $15 million ($A22 million) California mansion to her.
According to Daily Mail, the “Pirates of the Caribbean”, 47, star was issued a subpoena to testify in a February 2025 trial in which the “Roar” singer, 40, is attempting to claim damages from a man whose mansion she purchased more than four years ago.
The years-long fight over the sprawling Montecito home began in July 2020, when entrepreneur Carl Westcott, now 85, agreed to sell the property to Perry for $US15 million, inking a deal via her business manager, Bernie Gudvi, Realtor reports.
However, just days later, Mr Westcott, who suffers from Huntington’s disease, tried to back out, claiming that he was “mentally incapacitated” when he inked the deal, because of his degenerative illness and the painkillers that he had been taking after undergoing back surgery.
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A lengthy and very public legal battle then ensued during which both sides sued the other in a bid to take control of the home.
“The combination of his age, frailty from his back condition and recent surgery, and the opiates he was taking several times a day rendered Mr Westcott of unsound mind,” his complaint said.
However Perry’s representatives argued that Mr Westcott had been of sound mind when he agreed to the deal and that he only wanted to back out because he hadn’t been able to find an alternative Montecito property to his liking or budget.
In December 2023, a judge ruled in Perry’s favour and ordered that the original sales contracts would stand, determining that Mr Westcott had not provided substantial evidence to support his claim that he was not in a fit mental state to have sold the property.
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However, while the official ownership of the home has been determined — with property records indicating that Perry took over the deed in May 2024 — the battle still rages on, with Perry now seeking damages of up to $US6 million ($A9 million) from Mr Westcott.
Perry’s team is asking for damages “for lost fair-market rental value, deferred maintenance and repairs needed for water damage and a tree falling,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
In an email to the outlet, Chart Westcott, one of the previous owner’s sons, branded the singer’s decision to seek damages as “heartless.”
“Hollywood hypocrisy and fake empathy knows no bounds. Her continuing to seek damages, which will be paid in effect by my father’s grandchildren, is totally heartless,” he wrote.
Perry has so far paid $US9 million ($A13 million) for the $US15 million ($A22 million) estate and wants $US6 million ($A9 million) knocked off the price for various interior and exterior damages, repairs, and lost rental income since the time of the real estate deal.
The sprawling compound has eight bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms, a tennis court, two guesthouses, and a pool.
Mr Westcott’s family is disputing the pop star’s claims, and Perry will face a California judge where she will need to provide evidence of the damage caused by water and from a fallen tree, and other maintenance issues since her purchase of the place.
Perry has reportedly hired a team of 25 experts to look for faults in the home.
How much the “Roar” singer still owes on the property will be determined in court. The second phase of the trial, to determine damages, is set to begin on Feb 25, 2025.
While Perry was already expected to testify in court, it appears that her longtime partner, Bloom, may now be required to do so as well, with a source close to the Westcott family telling Daily Mail that they believe he should have to speak at the trial because of his “heavy involvement” with the property.
“The family believes strongly that Orlando should testify as he was heavily involved in the property management once the keys were exchanged and he visited prior,” the insider said.
The outlet states that Bloom was issued with the subpoena late on Halloween.
This isn’t the pop star’s first time feuding over real estate.
In the mid-2010s, Perry famously clashed with a group of Los Angeles nuns over the sale of their former convent after the archdiocese accepted her $US14.5 million offer, the New York Post reports.
In 2016, the judge ruled in favour of Perry, granting her the property.
Parts of this story first appeared in Realtor and New York Post and were republished with permission.
Originally published as Katy Perry splashes $13m on $22m California mansion
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