From financial and legal issues to plans that simply never come to fruition, these are just some of the reasons celebrities have been forced to abandon their mansions.
Despite having once had grand ambitions to create their dream home, these sad abodes ended up as structures completely void of love, care or life.
Here, the Daily Mail takes a closer look at the houses that were deserted by some of the rich and famous, from an unfinished mega-mansion to a decrepit estate left to rot for two decades.
Courtney Love’s house in Washington state left to ruin
Courtney Love put her neglected Washington state home on the market for $319,000 in 2018.
The grunge rock icon, 61, originally purchased the abandoned wooded property for $447,000 in early 1995, a year after her husband Kurt Cobain took his own life.
Courtney Love’s home in Washington state was left to ruin
The abandoned three-bedroom home was situated on seven acres of land
The two-story fixer-upper, located in rural Olympia, was set across 2,302sq ft and included three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
Out back, there was a guest cottage with considerable fire damage as well as a doorless two-car garage.
The property also came with an eight-stall horse barn, which was tagged with graffiti.
The four-time Grammy nominee’s sad former estate sat on nearly seven acres of overgrown, ungroomed foliage.
It is not clear if the property was ever sold.
Nelly’s abandoned Missouri mansion
Nelly had left a huge mansion in Wildwood, Missouri, to rot for nearly two decades before he put it up for sale.
The 51-year-old rapper, born Cornell Iral Haynes Jr, initially purchased the sprawling home for $1.9 million in 2002 with the hopes of flipping it.
Nelly left his huge Missouri mansion to crumble after failing to execute development plans
The massive property was left empty for almost two decades until the rapper sold it at a loss
According to reports, the Ride Wit Me songwriter planned to remodel the residence with a contractor friend when he purchased the mansion 24 years ago.
However, it would seem as though his plans to develop the home were abandoned.
The six-bedroom, seven-bath estate sat on almost 12 acres of land and featured an outdoor basketball court, swimming pool and separate game and media rooms.
The mansion’s foyer featured multiple arched walkways leading to other rooms of the property and boasted impressive marble tile flooring.
The property is located 30 miles outside of St Louis and is just minutes away from the Hidden Valley Ski Resort in the nearby city of Eureka.
The artist listed the home for $600,000 and it was sold in 2021 for an undisclosed price.
Mike Tyson’s dilapidated Ohio mansion
Mike Tyson’s Ohio property, which once dripped with gold and marble, was left to crumble after his dramatic fall from grace.
The spacious home in Southington featured gold-plated furnishings, a mirrored ceiling jacuzzi and a swimming pool twice the size of the average family home.
Mike Tyson was once the proud owner of a massive Ohio mansion
The private road leading to the gated property was overgrown with unruly weeds
The remains of Tyson’s abandoned mansion which he ended up selling in 1999
The swimming pool looked dirty after it was not maintained by the former owner
The huge abode had five bedrooms, seven-and-a-half bathrooms, a full kitchen, a mini kitchen/washroom, two attached garages, one external garage, tiger cages and a basketball court.
Heavyweight champion boxer Tyson, 59, lived there in the late 1980s and 1990s and used the property as a base while training for fights at Don King’s facility 20 miles away in nearby Orwell.
However, the home fell into disrepair after Tyson was convicted of rape and jailed for three years in 1992.
He was released, after serving three years, in March 1995.
Eventually, the sports star sold the property in 1999 amid financial trouble, but the owner didn’t move in and the house was sitting empty for years.
Mohamed Hadid’s demolished Bel-Air mega-mansion
Property tycoon Mohamed Hadid, the father of supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid, was forced to abandon a multimillion-dollar mansion in Los Angeles in 2021 due to legal issues.
The real estate developer, 77, bought the property off Strada Vecchia Road in 2011 and planned to build a 30,000sq ft home on a 1.22-acre lot.
Mohamed Hadid, father of model Gigi, was forced to abandon his mega-mansion
The excessive property included secret plans for a 70-seat IMAX theater
The mansion was ruled a ‘danger to the public’ and was ordered to be demolished by a judge
But the home’s dimensions were much larger and taller than city rules permit – and double the 15,000sq ft he was given permission for by the buildings department.
Hadid also hid exclusive features that the home would have from city officials, including a 70-seat IMAX theater and a huge wine cellar.
The property tycoon was plagued with legal issues throughout the construction.
In 2015, the former speed skiing Olympian was prosecuted by the Los Angeles city council after not following stop work orders on the mansion for failing to revert to the 15,000sq ft permit to build on.
In 2017, Hadid pleaded no contest to criminal charges and was sentenced to 200 hours of community service. He was also ordered to pay $3,000 in fines and other fees.
He was also ordered to organize a plan to ‘stabilize’ the hillside on which the property was situated, following concern from neighbors.
One year later, in 2018, Hadid was sued by his neighbors after not sticking to the proposal. They were awarded nearly $3 million.
The build reached a point of no return in 2019 when Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Craig D Karlan ruled that the mansion was a ‘danger to the public’ and that it must be demolished.
Speaking to the Daily Mail in 2022, Hadid said he was not sad to see his ambitious plans for his mega-mansion fall through.
‘I’ve moved on with my life – that’s all behind me now,’ he said. ‘I wish the people who bought it well and I wish them well with whatever they build there in its place. I have other projects I am involved with now.’
The estate was eventually razed to the ground in 2023.
