US TV star Kelsey Grammer has been accused of abandoning his seaside home in Somerset by his own neighbours who claim he has left the £1million property to go to ‘rack and ruin’.
The Frasier and Cheers actor, who is worth £60million, bought the 200-year-old cottage on the outskirts of Portishead four years ago and immediately submitted plans to have it converted into a grand mansion with commanding coastal views.
The house’s location was seen as perfect for the exotic transformation which included a doubling of its original footprint and the addition of a games room and a gym.
It is perched perfectly on a pretty hilltop with the land immediately to the west of it falling away dramatically down to the calm waters of the Bristol Channel.
On a clear day, views from the house’s west-facing conservatory stretch as far as the Black Mountains of Wales and sunsets viewed from the house are said to be ‘from another world’.
But councillors blocked Kelsey’s elaborate plans to extend the building leaving him and his wife of 15 years, Kayte, who grew up in Portishead, heartbroken.
Left in a stalemate position a year ago, Kelsey bizarrely instructed lawyers to post a notice saying he planned to bulldoze it to the ground almost immediately, which he was apparently allowed to do within a ‘permitted development’ legal loophole.
The actor and father-of-eight, who is 70, was branded ‘arrogant’ and ‘disrespectful’ by the people of the Somerset town when his legal team posted notice of the demolition plans which were meant to start in March of last year.
US TV star Kelsey Grammer has been accused of abandoning his seaside home in Somerset
The Frasier and Cheers actor, who is worth £60million, bought the 200-year-old cottage on the outskirts of Portishead four years ago
But ten months on, the house remains standing and completely unoccupied… and now also looks decidedly care-worn.
A neighbour said this week: ‘It’s a real shame. The house has been empty for four years. I’ve only seen him [Kelsey] once in all that time. It’s looking pretty run down. He just seems to have vanished, disappeared and abandoned the place.
‘It looks in a pretty poor state now with a wooden shed collapsed in the back garden right by the public footpath and many of the trees cut down. It looks totally unloved – such a shame.’
The neighbour continued: ‘We were expecting demolishers to move in or knock on our doors last March. But nothing’s happened, so maybe he changed his mind after the backlash. So we are left thinking, what is going to happen to it now?
‘He seems to have totally vanished. That said, some people might actually be happy about that as they’re upset with the plans he had to knock the house down.’
The apparent ‘abandonment’ of the Somerset home has coincided with a renaissance in Grammer’s TV and film career in the US where he has rebooted the beloved Frasier with a brand new series.
Two new seasons ran in 2023 and 2024 and there is talk of another series on a different platform after Paramount axed it in early 2025.
Grammer is said to have been in the US this past year touting for a new platform for a series three.
He also starred in an American film last year called Turbulence playing a hot-air balloon pilot. Meanwhile this year he will reprise his role as Dr Hank McCoy/Beast in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe film Avengers: Doomsday.
So perhaps his thoughts have just been elsewhere.
The actor and father-of-eight, who is 70, was branded ‘arrogant’ and ‘disrespectful’ by the people of the Somerset town when his legal team posted notice of the demolition plans
The apparent ‘abandonment’ of the Somerset home has led some locals to believe he is quitting the area
Kelsey chose the house in 2022 because his wife, former air stewardess Kayte, 46, grew up in and around Portishead and Clevedon. Her parents are from Bristol, while her brother Stuart still lives in Portishead. Kayte’s father Alan Walsh used to play football for Bristol City where he was considered a ‘legend’.
Grammer said of the house in 2022: ‘It’s a good spot – we’ve actually bought a house there. We bought a little place we’re going to be working on.
‘We won’t be taking up residence for a while but, yeah, we’re pretty excited about it. We have a little view of Wales from the channel there.’
One suspects that while the house currently appears abandoned, Grammar’s plans for the site are not done yet.
Kelsey might well feel strongly about seeing his wife’s dream home in the area where she grew up come to fruition. Afterall he knows only too well the importance of keeping a spouse happy.
Twenty years ago he was one of the highest-paid TV stars in America, clearing £1.2million per episode of Frasier.
However, his wealth has been significantly impacted over the years by multiple divorces, notably from Camille Grammer in February 2011 which cost him £22million, which was worked out to be half of the £44million in assets he accumulated during their 13-year marriage.
Grammer has until 2030 to complete the demolition, which he first applied for in August 2023, and was refused by planning bosses.
But exploiting a legal loophole, the star’s lawyers found that while he needed planning permission to extend the cottage, he didn’t need any to knock it down.
Walton-in-Gordano Parish Council objected, citing the cottage’s ‘historical importance and heritage’.
Other objections highlighted the ‘potential loss of historical significance, lack of demolition justification, negative impact on the rural environment and greenspace, and resistance towards any modern replacement design’.
Grammer shot to fame playing Boston bar regular and psychiatrist Dr Frasier Crane in the US sitcoms Cheers and Frasier
Grammer has been visiting Portishead since marrying former air stewardess Kayte in 2011, even appearing in a humorous promotional video for Portishead Golf Club in 2017, drinking beer and being coached by former pro golfer John Morgan.
Last year he and Kayte welcomed their fourth child together, Christopher, making Grammer a father of eight.
Kelsey and Kayte met on a trans-Atlantic flight to London where he was a passenger and she was a flight attendant in 2009.
Grammer shot to fame playing Boston bar regular and psychiatrist Dr Frasier Crane in the US sitcom Cheers alongside Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson, Kirstie Alley and George Wendt in the 80s and 90s. The series finale was watched by a colossal 90 million viewers and many of the cast – including Grammer – became stars in their own right.
Kelsey later got a spin-off show, Frasier, which was one of the most popular on US TV. Frasier ran from 1993 to 2004 and was revived again between 2023 and 2024.
