Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are ‘eyeing up’ new UK mansion
DeGeneres and wife de Rossi made the big decision to move to the UK in 2024, but new reports claim they’re preparing to leave.
Comedian Ellen DeGeneres and wife Portia de Rossi have only been living in the UK for a matter of months and new reports suggest the couple are already “eyeing up” a brand-new home.
DeGeneres and de Rossi, made the move over the pond toward the end of 2024, quitting their longtime home in California in favour of pursuing a new life in a toney countryside community outside of London.
However, while sources said the couple were delighted with their new life in the UK, it seems the same cannot be said of their feelings about their new home — which has reportedly been bogged down in a number of problems, including flooding and planning “clashes” with neighbours, Realtor reports.
These so-called issues have now led DeGeneres and de Rossi to set their sights on a new 930 sqm mansion, which they are already said to have “looked at several times,” Realtor reports.
A source said: “Ellen and Portia have had several issues with the place they initially moved into. First there was the flooding, of course, then there was an issue with some locals complaining about some building work carried out at the property.”
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“So the upshot seems to have been that they started to have a look around and then this property came up. They looked at it several times. And they liked it more each time they looked.
“So it does look like it’s happening. They’ve been seen around there several times in recent weeks and have even had interactions with neighbours.”
Their new property is believed to feature expansive, floor-to-ceiling windows and is a stark change to their traditional farmhouse.
According to Realtor, de Rossi first fell in love with the home when she spotted it on social media and begged her comedian spouse to see it in person.
The news of their alleged relocation comes after a dispute between the former TV show host and a high-profile member of her new neighbourhood.
DeGeneres reportedly “committed a ‘technical breach’” during the build of a single-story extension at her new abode in what was described as a “planning clash.”
DeGeneres and her wife are understood to have purchased the home back in June, five months before news of their relocation plans were revealed — with sources alleging at the time that the pair would be settling down in the Cotswolds, a charming region about two hours from London.
However, their fresh start across the pond was soon dampened after three local councillors raised concerns that DeGeneres and de Rossi’s extension might “increase flood risk in the village” and “disturb Roman remains.”
DeGeneres and de Rossi are reported to have received several objections from their neighbours who have spoken out against their extension plan.
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Meanwhile, other residents expressed concern that the hedge-and-wire fence at the comedian’s home could lead to flooding if trash gets “caught in the fence” and limits the “flow across the field.”
Despite the protests, a spokesperson for West Oxfordshire Direct Council insisted that the Roman remains sit over 200 yards from DeGeneres and de Rossi’s property and that the work was “completed to a high standard.”
“The works at the property involved a single-story extension and garden landscaping,” the spokesperson told the New York Post.
“Although the extension technically breached permitted development rights, it was considered acceptable in planning terms.
“As the works were completed to a high standard with no impact on surrounding amenities or other planning concerns, no further enforcement action was necessary, and the case has been closed.
“Regarding concerns about Roman remains on Akeman Street, the site is more than 200 metres away from the Roman road, and no interference was identified.”
Interestingly, the reports come just weeks after a piece was published in Vanity Fair in which several unnamed locals from DeGeneres’ former community of Montecito, California, accused her — along with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle — of driving up house prices in the area.
“[The Montecito locals] attribute the increase in housing prices to [Meghan and Harry] as much as DeGeneres and point to out-of-towners coming in, driving too fast, and taking up all the street parking by local trails like the one Meghan was photographed hiking on while Harry was in the UK for Charles’s coronation,” the New York Post claimed.
In November, when news of DeGeneres and de Rossi’s move was first revealed, it was claimed by TMZ that their decision to “get the hell out” of the US was cemented by Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election — despite the fact that they’d purchased their home months earlier.
DeGeneres was an outspoken supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential election, publicly endorsing her in a post shared on Instagram back in August.
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Last month, the comedian — who has built a reputation for herself as an amateur property investor — cut ties with the US by listing one of her last remaining homes in Los Angeles at a highly discounted rate.
The former daytime TV host and her wife bought the five-bedroom, 6.5-bathroom home for $29 million back in November 2022 and quickly put it back on the market for $33.9 million ($A53.9 million) just 18 months later.
However, the property was not cut out for the quick flip that the pair seemed to have been hoping for — remaining on the market for close to 100 days, before its listing was removed in August 2024.
In January, DeGeneres and de Rossi decided to try their luck again, relisting the property for the discounted price of $29.99 million ($A47.8 million), reducing their potential profit on the home by a hefty amount.
A sale would mark only the fourth time the property has changed hands since it was built in 1955 by famous architect Richard Neutra, having been owned by the same family for 40 years until being sold for the first time in 1994.
That owner, who purchased the modernist home for the bargain price of just $1.42 million, held on to the property for 25 years before putting it on the market in 2019, when it sold for $20 million.
Three years later, DeGeneres and de Rossi added the elegant abode to their already-impressive property portfolio, paying out $29 million for the dwelling.
They have since renovated the home extensively, helping to restore Neutra’s “pioneering vision,” while also adding a host of modern-day amenities.
Per the listing description, the home, which is widely known as “The Brown House,” has plenty to offer a potential buyer, not least the architectural caché that comes from owning a Neutra design.
During the past decade, DeGeneres and de Rossi have made a name for themselves as talented real estate moguls, buying, flipping, and selling multiple homes in California — largely for a hefty profit.
In August, the comedian offloaded one of her most expensive properties to date, a $96 million ($A139 million) estate in California, which she and de Rossi purchased in two parts back in 2022.
First, the couple snapped up the main property — a five-bedroom, eight-bathroom, Tuscan-style mansion that sits on a 3.44-acre plot — for $41.7 million. They then paid $28.2 million for a vacant, 6.58-acre plot of land that sits alongside the home, in order to create a jaw-dropping, 10-acre estate atop a bluff overlooking the ocean.
The sale came just months after DeGeneres and de Rossi offloaded another staggering piece of real estate: an enormous mansion in nearby Montecito, where the comedian lived within a stone’s throw of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
DeGeneres offloaded that property for a relatively paltry $32 million ($A50 million) in February of this year. It had been listed for sale in October 2023 for $46.5 million ($A74 million).
The home was, according to multiple reports, snapped up by billionaire mining tycoon Robert Friedland — the same man who is understood to be behind the purchase of DeGeneres’ Carpinteria property, according to the Wall Street Journal.
In 2011, the comedian opened up about her love of real estate, explaining that her passion for home buying began after she started making real money from her on-screen career.
“We never had a house when I was growing up,” she told Architectural Digest at the time. “We always rented. But my father would dream, and we used to look at houses all the time. I’d pick out which bedroom would be mine and get all excited.
“The first thing I did when I made money was buy a house. And then …” she went on, prompting her wife to jump in and quip: “Another one. And another one and another one and another one.”
Having called it quits on her popular daytime show in 2022, DeGeneres has certainly had more time on her hands to devote to flipping properties, purchasing four properties and selling three in 2022 alone.
Many of the homes have been purchased in off-market deals via LLCs and trusts, making it nearly impossible to know just how many homes DeGeneres and de Rossi now own. Sources have not revealed whether the pair plan to retain any residences in the US or if they want to sell them all and cut their ties with the country altogether.
This story first appeared in Realtor and was republished with permission.
Originally published as Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are ‘eyeing up’ new UK mansion
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