The A-Listers have no use for Uncle Sam.
You would think after working hard for years to make it in Hollywood, stars would never want to leave the land of sunshine and multi-million dollar paydays. But some celebrities have decided not just to say ta-ta to Tinseltown, but have packed their bags and left the country altogether for a quieter—and in some cases far less politically-charged life. Even though none of the stars like Alec Baldwin, Lena Dunham, and Barbra Streisand made good on their promise to leave the United States if Donald Trump became president, there are more than a few A-listers who are steering clear of the states these days for a myriad of reasons—not the least of which is our current contentious political climate. And for more shocking facts about your favorite stars, check out these 30 Celebrities With Amazing Hidden Talents.
The Oscar-winning actor and political activist has owned Villa Oleandra, his home in Italy on picturesque Lake Como, since 2001, which he snapped up for $10 million. At the time, he was still spending plenty of time in the states. In October 2014, a month after he married international human rights attorney Amal Alamuddin, the couple bought a sprawling manor house on the River Thames where they are raising their year-old twins, Ella and Alexander. The Clooneys were big supporters of Hillary Clinton and George has said Trump’s win was “a result in many ways of the fact that much of the news programs didn’t follow up and ask tough questions. That’s the truth.”
The Kentucky native has a love of all things British (remember when he made a cameo role in a video spoof of Downton Abbey for charity?) and has clearly embraced his new lord of the manor lifestyle. He and missus were the star attraction (besides the bride and groom) at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Windsor last month. But they still make time to support causes in the states close to their hearts. Both George and Amal were “honored guests” at the March of Our Lives in Washington, DC and donated $500,000 in the name of their children. And for more celebrities abroad, check out these 30 Celebrities With Surprising Overseas Endorsement Deals.
Hollywood’s notorious wild child is all grown-up now and proclaims to have left her bad behavior—and her life in America all in the past. The 32-year-old from Long Island, New York, is now living in Dubai and is making her mark in the hospitality business. She just opened Lohan Beach House in Greece, which is quickly becoming a popular Mykonos beach club with a restaurant and bar. She told The New York Times she is also working on plans to design a Lohan island in Dubai. In the interview, she explained her decision to leave the United States saying, “When I chose to change my future, my life, I was like, ‘Where’s the one place I can find silence?'” She describes Dubai, where an unmarried woman can be arrested if she becomes pregnant, as “the safest place. It’s less demanding. America is always like, ‘Go go go go go!'”
Lohan, who still plans to continue acting, also told the newspaper she was glad to escape America’s tabloid culture. “I don’t have to turn on the news and see about the Kardashians. I don’t have to see anything anymore.” And that includes the non-stop news about Donald Trump, who once made the comment to Howard Stern on his radio show that Lohan was “probably deeply troubled and therefore great in bed.” Lohan has tuned him out entirely. “He’s the president…I have no feeling. I have no emotion.” She is, however, friendly with Tiffany Trump (” a really sweet girl”) who is scheduled to visit Lohan next month in Greece.
The globe-trotting actress and humanitarian is never in one place for too long—and has lived mainly out of the United States for years. When things were good between soon-to-be ex-husband Brad Pitt, the couple spent much of their time at their 1,100 estate in France, Chateau Miraval, where they got married in 2014. All of Jolie’s six children were born abroad. The Oscar winner has traveled all over the globe as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees. She bought a house in her son’s Maddox Jolie-Pitt’s native Cambodia shortly after she adopted him and considers her family “citizens of the world.” She’s temporarily renting a home for her brood in Hidden Hills, California for $30,000 a month while she hammers out the details of her increasingly contentious divorce with Pitt. Once that’s settled, she’s sure to set off for another exotic adventure with her kids in tow. And for more star studded escapades, check out these 30 Worst Red Carpet Style Fails.
In 2016, Depp offered this prediction: “If Donald Trump is elected president of the United States in a kind of historical way, it’s exciting because we will see the actual last president of the United States. It just won’t work after that.” That same year, the chameleon-like actor played Trump in a 50-minute “movie of the week” spoof for Funny or Die lampooning his book, The Art of the Deal. Suffice to say he’s not a Trump fan.
Perhaps that’s why Depp, was born in Kentucky and raised in Florida, is almost never in the U.S. He spends much of his time in France, although he is selling the 30-acre village in the south of France he shared with his ex, Vanessa Paradis. He also has a house in the English countryside and his own island in the Bahamas. And for more celeb news, check out these 20 Celebrity Friendships You Never Could Have Predicted.
The ageless rock icon gave up her U.S. citizenship to become a citizen of Switzerland and has lived there for two decades. The 73-year-old singer has spent most of her time since the mid-nineties in Küsnacht in a sprawling mansion overlooking Lake Zurich. She told the Swiss-German newspaper Blick that she’d never consider living anywhere else now. And for more amazing celebrity ‘dos (like the soul queen’s pictured above), check out 30 Most Iconic Celebrity Hairstyles of All Time.
The country music star currently lives in the town of Corseaux, overlooking Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The Canadian-born singer lives with her husband, business executive Frédéric Thiébaud, who not so coincidentally happens to be her ex-husband’s mistress’s ex-husband. The “Queen of Country Pop” dropped off the radar and holed up in Switzerland for years after the break-up of her first marriage as she struggled with some health issues but slowly came back on the music scene in 2009. Earlier this year, she announced she’ll be touring in the states and Canada for the first time in 11 years—but then it’s right back to Switzerland.
He played the morally bankrupt president of the United States on House of Cards, but hasn’t lived here since 2003 when he moved to London to become artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre.
In 2009, Spacey gave up the prestigious gig but told the Daily Mail he had no intention of moving back to the states. “I’m proud to be an American and I love the US—it’s where I was raised, and it’s where I learned my craft as an actor,” he said at the time. “But moving to London has given me a whole new perspective, not only on America, but on the world itself, and for me, this has been an extraordinary thing.”
It’s anybody’s guess where Spacey is these days since multiple allegations of sexual assault emerged against him in the U.S. and Britain (Scotland Yard and the DA in Los Angeles is investigating). He was fired from the Netflix series and booted from the film All the Money is the World, which he was shooting at the time the first allegations surfaced. It’s a safe bet he won’t be returning to the states (at least willingly) for some time, if at all.
Though American film director Tim Burton grew up conjuring beautiful nightmares in Burbank, California, he found a more gloomy, weather-beaten friend in London in the early 2000s. As it turns out, the sunny days were really starting to affect his creative process. His incredibly eccentric house, complete with an appropriate amount of gory mannequins and wide-eyed prostheses, is adjoined to his former wife Helena Bonham Carter’s house, where they share custody of their two children.
Chinese actor and martial artist Li Lianjie, or better known by his stage name, Jet Li, shocked fans everywhere when, in 2009, he renounced his American citizenship in order to make the move to Singapore. According to Li, he made the move for his kids. More than anything, Li has made it his mission to retain his ethnic heritage and native language—and the only way that he could accomplish that would be to move out of the United States.
The pop star made the move to Dubai in 2016 to be with her former husband, Wissam Al Mana, and enjoy a break from the paparazzi. Though many aspects of Jackson’s life have changed since the split from her husband in 2017, the star still aims to leave America behind.
According to a source, “She prefers the quiet, secluded life especially now that she is focusing on starting their family. Her foreign home allows her a secret life and makes it easier for her to keep it under wraps.” And for more celebrity facts, check out these 30 Celebrities Who Lost Millions Practically Overnight.
Diane Clehane is a New York-based journalist and author of Imagining Diana and Diana: The Secrets of Her Style.
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