Richard Gere sells house for $28 million, moves to cheaper home after stepping away from career to focus on his family
Over the years, Richard Gere fans must have noticed that the famous actor doesn’t appear in movies as much as he used to. However, the significant change was not due to him getting old, obsolete or retiring.
In 2017, Vanity Fair revealed how China financed a good part of Hollywood. During the 1993 Oscar Awards, Richard disparaged China by delivering an off-script speech on stage on behalf of the people of Tibet.
The Tibetan Buddhist and friend of the religion’s exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, explained an incident that once happened to him and probably led to his exclusion from the big screen. Richard said he had a project he was willing to work on with a Chinese director that fell through.
Two weeks before shooting was to begin, the director called him on a protected line and told him they could not work together. If the actor had worked with the director, he and his family would have been confined to China. As a result, the director was never to work with him again. The actor stated:
“Recently, I had an episode where someone said he could not finance a film with me because it would upset the Chinese.”
However, the star was not bitter about being kicked out of Hollywood and not having any more roles. He no longer needed to wear a tuxedo without the need for performances on the red carpet, which were mandatory under the contract.
An added benefit of being kicked out of Hollywood was having a lot more free time. The “Pretty Woman” star could now concentrate more on his family life and children.
Although one door closed for Richard, another opened when he found love. In 2014 he met a woman who was 33 years his junior and later became his wife.
The “Primal Fear” actor sent Alejandra Silva flowers when he discovered he was in love with her. He only stopped when she finally gave in and agreed to go on a date with him. They were unaware at the time that they were destined to be together.
Richard was married twice before meeting Silva; with his second wife, Carey Lowell, the star welcomed his first son, Homer James Jigme, in 2000. The former couple’s divorce was finalized in 2016.
However, the couple continued to raise their son. By 2018, Richard and Silva’s relationship had become so serious that they married in April, and the actor opened up to People magazine in September about their relationship and said:
“Our lives were drawn together the moment we saw each other. I’m not ignoring our age difference and what it means to be with a Hollywood star, but when there’s such a strong energy, the problems disappear.”
Silva, an activist, also came into the new marriage with a son, Albert, whom she had with Govind Friedland, her first husband. She and Richard have generally opted for a life of privacy and out of the media
In February 2019, the couple welcomed their first child, Alexander. The couple’s relationship seemed to be going well and, in 2019, Silva revealed that she had no regrets about meeting the actor. She said:
“He is the most humble, sensitive, loving, caring, attentive, funny and generous man I have ever met.”
She told ¡Hola! that she was “so in love” and shared how Richard spent every morning asking her what would make her happy that day. Silva became the envy of all women when she said that not a day went by without her husband mentioning how important she was to him.
In April 2020, Richard and his wife were blessed with another son. Although the Chicago star now has more children, that doesn’t mean he has neglected Homer, whom he once called the “joy of my life.”
To this day, Homer James continues to communicate with his father and occasionally goes out in public with him. The boy’s relationship with his stepmother Silva is also good, although the boy stayed to live with his mother. Alejandra, Richard and Homer often travel together, building family relationships.
Now the eldest son of Gere is not yet fully determined with his life goals, but he has the potential to follow in his father’s footsteps, the more so, since the early years the boy appears with his father in front of the cameras at receptions, which he clearly enjoys. Homer is distinguished by his reserved character and pleasant appearance inherited from his stellar parents.
In 1986, the “American Gigolo” star bought his property for $1.51 million, and purchased neighboring homes over the years to create his compound. His colonial-style mansion, where he lived with his family, featured guest houses and a stable.
Richard’s home was about 50 miles from Manhattan in Pound Ridge. Richard’s mansion featured natural features such as rolling hills, a private lake with a beach and weeping willows. The three-story house also had a soccer field, a swimming pool, a basketball court and a dining room.
The actor’s 1,000-square-foot, New England-style main residence features ten bathrooms, eight bedrooms, a solarium, a library, a modern kitchen and a living room with a floor-to-ceiling fireplace.
In 2021, Richard put the house on the market for $28 million. However, the star didn’t stray too far from that abode, as he had snapped up a Georgian-style mansion a few miles north of North Salem for $9.8 million much cheaper.
