Why is Richard Gere Moving to Spain: Hollywood star explains
Pin‘This is a problem for anybody out there?’ Richard Gere jokes after telling the Jimmy Fallon show audience that his wife, Alejandra Silva, is Spanish. (YouTube screengrab)
It was an event that had the right ingredients to trigger big international headlines – a world-renowned celebrity, a nearly $11 million real estate sale, and a move overseas of a famous family.
And it did. Reports about the American film star Richard Gere moving to Spain drew keen interest in the press and on social media.
“Spain-Bound Richard Gere Sells His Connecticut Estate for $10.75 Million,” proclaimed a headline in Architectural Digest. “Richard Gere is leaving the US, sells his Connecticut house for $11 million,” chimed in The Hindustan Times in India.
Beyond the news of a celebrity-studded real estate transaction, the story has another fascinating angle, especially for those who have already moved to Spain themselves or are exploring such a move in the future.
An all-star mansion: From Mrs Robinson to Pretty Woman
The real estate buzz created by the news was understandable: it revolved around a rather unique property whose recent buyer and seller ranked among the most recognizable names in the entertainment industry.
In the summer of 2022, Richard Gere, the star of “Pretty Woman” among a gazillion other blockbuster movies and TV shows, bought the six-bedroom, 11-bathroom home with expansive grounds in New Canaan from Paul Simon, the singer-songwriter of such hits as “Mrs. Robinson” and “Bridge over Troubled Waters,” among, yes, a gazillion other blockbuster songs.
The estate that covers over 32 acres has a large English country- style main house, and a guest cottage which Simon used as a recording studio.
According to news reports, Gere bought the property from Simon at a considerable discount. The mansion where the singer-songwriter lived with his wife, Edie Brickell, for 17 years, had been initially listed for nearly $14 million. The cited records indicate that Gere paid $10.8 million for it.
However, when selling it in 2024, Gere had settled for about $50,000 less than what he had paid for it two years ago.
Richard Gere moving to Spain: Why?
“Richard Gere shares why he sold his Connecticut home amid plans to leave the US,” ran a headline in The Miami Herald, echoing a theme that has been prominent throughout the coverage of this story.
An important clue: Richard Gere’s wife of five years, Alejandra Silva, is Spanish and she has an extended family in Spain.
That was one of the big reasons for the move to Spain by Richard Gere with wife and their two sons, Alexander, 5, and James, 4.
During his appearance last November on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Gere explained it this way: “My wife is Spanish, and she gave me about seven years here, so we’re going to spend some years in Madrid with her family,” he told the host, adding that it was a very big and close family, where his wife’s late grandmother used to play a vital role as kind of the glue that held it all together.
And now his wife was ready to step in, noted Gere. “I can see her morphing into the new grandmother of this extended family,” he said. “So she’s already planning for, you know, 35 people for Sunday lunches.”
For Gere, the importance of close family ties and a strong sense of community in Spain is a huge positive, as he explained in a range of interviews.
“”The place is beautiful,” he told Elle Spain at the ELLE for Future red carpet event in November 2024. “We were talking about communities, there’s a very strong sense of community, and people care about each other,” said the American actor. “You know, in my part of the world, those kinds of bonds, social bonds, and community bonds are breaking down, so I do appreciate them.”
In an earlier interview with Vanity Fair Spain pointed to the facets of Spanish lifestyle that he found to be particularly gratifying: “I love Spain and the ability of the Spanish people to live transmitting joy and happiness.”
“I’m looking forward to going there,” stressed the Pretty Woman star. “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.”
Which seems to offer some revealing insights into the “Why?” questions swirling around the “Richard Gere moving to Spain” saga.