New chapter for Katy Perry’s $23.6m mansion
Singer Katy Perry has been slammed for publicly going after a war veteran in court in a bid to pocket almost $10 million.
Pop star Katy Perry has been branded “entitled” and “unforgivable” by the family of the 85-year-old veteran she ousted from her $15 million ($A 23.6 million) Montecito mansion.
Perry became engaged in a bitter real estate battle with Carl Westcott back in 2020, when she struck a deal to buy his Montecito home for $15 million — only for the entrepreneur to back out just days later, claiming he had been under the influence of painkillers when he agreed to the sale.
“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,” Westcott’s lawyers stated in court documents.
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However, Perry’s representatives argued that Westcott, a business mogul who founded 1-800-Flowers, 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.
Their yearslong legal battle was finally resolved in December 2023, when a judge ruled in Perry’s favour and ordered that the original sale contract — which was arranged via the pop star’s business manager, Bernie Gudvi — should be upheld.
Perry officially took possession of the home in May 2024. The sprawling, 1930s-era, 862 sqm compound sits among the Santa Ynez foothills and has eight bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms, a tennis court, two guesthouses, and a pool.
While the ownership of the property has been cemented in court, the “Dark Horse” singer is now seeking up to $US6 million ($A9.4 million) in damages from Westcott — a move that has been slammed by his family, who have accused her of having “zero empathy.”
In an interview with The Sun, Westcott’s son, Chart slammed Perry’s “entitled celebrity behaviour,” questioning why someone with her wealth and status would insist upon pursuing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against a man who has been “bedridden for well over 18 months.”
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“If an old man apologises and says he made a mistake [about the house sale], and she’s a rich pop star who can buy any other house in the world, you’d think she would let the old man go on his way,” he said.
“It’s entitled celebrity behaviour. She has no sense of fair play, no empathy, zero empathy, quite the opposite.
“The worse the condition my father is in, the harsher they’ve been in trial; it’s unfortunate to see the way her lawyers have conducted themselves, bottom of the barrel in terms of ethics.”
He went on to allege that there is “no other explanation” for her decision “other than greed,” before slamming Perry — and her husband, Orlando Bloom — as “unforgivable.”
Perry has thus far paid $9 million for the $15 million estate and wants $6 million knocked off the price for various interior and exterior damages, repairs, and lost rental income since the time of the real estate deal.
She reportedly hired a team of 25 experts to look for faults in the home.
Westcott’s family is disputing the pop star’s claims — and Perry will now need to appear in a Los Angeles to testify in person, while a subpoena motion has been put before the court seeking to force Orlando Bloom to also appear during the trial.
Perry’s manager has accused the family of “harassing Bloom,” claiming that they are attempting to turn the trial “into a media circus” by asking a judge to force the actor to appear in court.
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Westcott had only owned the home for a matter of months when he agreed to sell the property to Perry’s manager — having purchased it in May 2020 for $11.25 million.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Perry outbid Maria Shriver in order to secure the home; however, it is unclear whether she had planned to use the mansion as a primary residence for her family, which includes her daughter, Daisy Dove, whom she shares with Bloom.
After Westcott attempted to back out of the deal, Perry purchased a second Montecito home for $14.2 million, and she is still understood to own that property.
This story first appeared in Realtor and was republished with permission.
Originally published as New chapter for Katy Perry’s $23.6m mansion
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