While many think of New York City or Los Angles when it comes to where the biggest names in Hollywood rest their heads, these stars looked for for a place away from the bright lights.
Whether its Richard Gere’s recent decision to move his family to Spain to be closer to his wife’s loved ones or Pamela Anderson’s 2020 return to her native Canada, see which stars have decided to live abroad.
Richard Gere
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Six months after sharing that he wanted to relocate to Spain with his wife, Alejandra Silva, and their two young sons, Richard Gere sold his $11 million New Canaan, Conn., home in October 2024.
“For Alejandra, it will be wonderful to be closer to her family, her lifelong friends and her culture,” Gere told Vanity Fair Spain of his wife, who was born in Spain. “She was very generous in giving me six years living in my world, so it is only fair that I give her at least another six living in hers.”
Despite the big move and sale of his Connecticut home, Gere told the outlet he still has a house “in the countryside near New York.”
Lily Collins
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Lily Collins and her husband Charlie McDowell moved to Copenhagen, Denmark in 2023, Vogue reported.
That year, she was asked by Elle Danmark the best part about life in Copenhagen. The answer? “Everything!”
“Life here is just so wonderful and so calm and bright. What I love so much is that there’s so much color and, yet, it’s so calm. I love being able to bike everywhere. It feels like a big city but also very intimate, and everyone is so nice.”
Per Architectural Digest, she and her husband still have property on the West Coast.
Josh Lucas
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In 2019, Josh Lucas opened up about living in Indonesia where his son, then 7, was enrolled in an environmentally focused school. The Sweet Home Alabama actor described it as “such a special place.”
“I have this very special 7-year-old child, and I think all of us are trying to figure out how to have an impact in the world, and for myself, the best thing I could do is give my son this extraordinary experience,” he explained on Jimmy Kimmel Live! “Being on the other side of the world and looking back at this madness is amazing.”
Of his son’s school, he added, “He loves it. It’s magical. It’s deeply in the jungle. It’s like Swiss Family Robinson — they grow their own food, they make their own buildings out of bamboo.”
Pamela Anderson
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Pamela Anderson decided to move back to Vancouver Island, British Columbia — where she was born and raised — around the start of the pandemic in 2020. As she told Better Homes & Gardens in August 2024, the decision was in part due to her feelings about how she felt the public perceived her.
“A few years back, I kind of gave up at some point and needed a change,” Anderson said. “I thought, ‘Well, I guess that’s just what people think of me.’ I was not in a good space when I moved back to Canada.”
“I don’t know what happened over the last few decades, but I feel now so far removed from the image of who I was,” she continued. “I felt very sad and lonely. I didn’t feel just misunderstood, I felt like I had really screwed up, that my whole life was a bundle of mistakes. I was hard on myself, and I thought I put my family through a lot and put my kids through so much.”
Her move to Canada was not her first move abroad as an adult; she previously lived in Marseille, France.
Lindsay Lohan
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In 2017, Lindsay Lohan opened up about living in Dubai after she began residing in the city in 2014, telling Entertainment Tonight, “I love living in New York, but I do love the serenity and peace that I find living in the Middle East because there are no cameras in Dubai and I can actually focus on what I want to do in life.”
Later, Lohan welcomed her first son, Luai, in Dubai, where she is raising him with husband Bader Shammas.
Tina Turner
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Tina Turner moved to Kusnacht, Switzerland in 1998 with her partner Erwin Bach. While she initially rented the home, known as Villa Algonquin, due to Swiss restrictions, after becoming a citizen in 2013, she bought the estate for a reported $76 million, according to the Associated Press.
The home on the shore of Lake Zurich is where the iconic singer died at age 83 in 2023.
Shania Twain
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Also making a home in Switzerland is Shania Twain whose main residence is near Lake Geneva, Homes & Gardens reported in 2023.
After living in the country for 10 years, the singer had one of Switzerland’s Golden Pass Express trains named in her honor: the “Shania Train,” CNN reported.
Christina Milian
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On a recent episode of The Jennifer Hudson Show, Christina Milian shared that after years of splitting time between France and the U.S., she and her husband Matt Pokora, who is French, “decided to commit” to living overseas as their kids were now of school age.
“I love it out there!” she said. “So our children, they’re 3, 4, and of course Violet is 14, they’re all going to school in Paris. What better than an opportunity than that.”
Milian shares sons Isaiah, 4, and Kenna, 3 with Pokora and daughter Violet, 14, with ex The-Dream.
Melissa George
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In 2016, Melissa George moved to Paris from New York City with her two sons, The New York Times Magazine reported. Since 2020, she has had a home in Provence which she recently showed off for the outlet. The 17th century home is five stories tall and filled with intricate furniture and custom touches she’s added along the way.
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