Richard Gere Returns to U.S. After Facing Fury From Paul Simon's Daughter Over Demolition of Her $10.75 Million Childhood Home

Yahoo

4 days ago

Hollywood superstar Richard Gere has returned to the U.S. from his home in Spain—just weeks after he was publicly slammed by the daughter of music legend Paul Simon over his decision to sell her historic childhood home, which has since been demolished.
Gere, 75, was pictured strolling through John F. Kennedy Airport on Aug. 7 with a suitcase in tow, keeping a low profile in sweatpants, a T-shirt, and a baseball cap.
Photos published by the Daily Mail showed the "Pretty Woman" star wheeling his own luggage through the terminal, while also carrying a bright yellow tote bag and a guitar.
Gere's return to the U.S. comes nine months after he and his wife, Alejandra, relocated to Spain from their home in Connecticut—a move that the actor revealed they made so that his spouse, who hails from the European country, could be closer to family.
Yet their move became mired in controversy in July when Lulu Simon, the daughter of crooner Paul and his wife, Edie Brickell, issued a withering takedown of Gere—who purchased her childhood home from the singer in 2022.
In May, Realtor.com® exclusively revealed that the developer to whom Gere then sold the home for $10.75 million in November 2024 was razing the property in order to make way for a nine-plot subdivision.
This news appears to have enraged Lulu, 30, who blasted the decision in several posts shared to her Instagram Stories last month.
"Just in case anyone was wondering if I still hate Richard Gere—I do!" she wrote alongside a picture of herself flashing a peace sign at the camera.
"He bought my childhood home," she went on. "Promised he would take care of the land as [a] condition of his purchase. Proceeded to never actually move in and just sold it to a developer as nine separate plots.
"Hate! Him!" she concluded the post, which also featured a news story about Gere's real estate deal.
Lulu then continued her tirade with a rather sinister warning for Gere, sharing an image of the actor surrounded by photos of her late pets, while writing: "I hope my dead pets buried in that backyard haunt you until you descend into a slow and unrelenting madness."
Both posts were deleted around 18 hours after they were first shared, and Lulu has not commented publicly on the messages since.
Gere has also remained silent over the controversy, and in the weeks since appears to have been soaking up his quiet life in Madrid with his wife and their children.
Meanwhile, the demolition of the six-bedroom mansion in which Lulu spent her childhood is already well underway, after local salvage company Hudson Valley House Parts of Newburgh, NY, was called in to save the most historic parts of the 1938 dwelling back in May.
At the time, the company's founder, Reggie Young, told Realtor.com that he felt it was "a real shame" the house was being razed, noting: "Once the stuff is gone, it's never coming back."
Still, Young and his team managed to salvage several of the most stunning features in the home, including two steel nautical-motif, midcentury bay windows; a limestone mantel and a marble mantel; Colonial window sashes; a complete cerused oak library with a bowed fireplace and wall paneling with built-ins; exterior stone steps with an iron railing and a portico; and the entire entryway with the arched jamb, door surround, and paneled walls.
The company shared images and video of that process online—with several users lamenting the destruction of such an historic estate.
"This is like watching a horror movie," one person wrote. "So sad this is being dismantled but grateful you're saving it for a new use."
Gere purchased the home from the "Mrs. Robinson" crooner and his wife, Edie Brickell, in the summer of 2022 and had originally planned to turn a large portion of its expansive grounds into a farm, according to details shared during a local planning and zoning commission meeting in 2023.
But in April, those plans seemed to have been put on hold when Gere told Vanity Fair Spain that he wanted to relocate his entire family to the European country so that his Spanish-born wife could be closer to her family.
"It is a beautiful place, the food is extraordinary and the people exude sensitivity and generosity, as well as a strong will to laugh and enjoy," he told the outlet. "I'm looking forward to going there.
"For Alejandra, it will be wonderful to be closer to her family, her lifelong friends and her culture. 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.
"I love Spain and the ability of the Spanish people to live transmitting joy and happiness."
While it's unclear why Gere—who turns 76 on Aug. 31—has returned to the U.S., his wife has previously explained that the couple were always planning to retain a residence in the actor's home country, revealing that they were only ever planning to make Spain their home "for a few years."
At the time, she added that they had already signed their kids up for summer camp in the U.S., which may explain Gere's return this month.
"For a few years [we'll live in Spain], and then come back. But we're always coming back. We'll come back here in the summer because we have the kids at camp. We just have to balance our lives there and here," she told the Daily Mail.
Gere also confirmed during his interview with Vanity Fair Spain that he was holding onto property in the U.S., telling the outlet that they owned a dwelling "in the countryside near New York," although he did not specify where.
Over the years, Gere has bought and sold numerous homes in the greater New York area, offloading a 50-acre Westchester estate for $28 million back in May 2022. TV-series runner Ryan Murphy was later revealed as the buyer.
Six years earlier, he had listed his Hamptons property, a picture-perfect home in Sag Harbor, NY, which was initially listed for $65 million.
Two years later, he wed Silva, and the pair have since welcomed two sons together. Gere also has an older son, Homer, now 24, from his marriage to second wife Carey Lowell, while Silva shares a son, Albert, 11, with her ex-spouse, Govind Friedland.
Since their big move, Gere has gushed about how much he "loves" their new life—while also slamming the way in which the U.S. has changed under the leadership of President Donald Trump, leading many to suggest that he might never return.
In an interview with Spanish publication El Pais, he further elaborated on those views while discussing his views on kindness.
"If each of us were kind to each other, the world would be different and better. Not all of us respond to wisdom, but we all respond to kindness," Gere told the publication. "Even in the case of Trump, I'm sure there is something kind about him. People say he's charming in private.
"Yet the world he's created around himself is violent, crude, and ignorant. Many of the things he's doing we've never seen before."
When asked whether he believes that Trump's second term in office could "irreversibly change the values of U.S. society," the actor admitted that he "worries" about it—claiming that the president is "cut off from" society's natural sense of empathy.
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