Tinseltown just isn’t for everyone.
While many dream of moving to Los Angeles and finding stardom, some A-list celebs ultimately flee Hollywood for a quieter and more private life.
Mark Wahlberg, Dean Cain and Nicole Kidman are just some stars who have made the move over the years.
While Wahlberg, 52, escaped Hollywood for his family, others have claimed that the change has improved their “quality of life.”
Check out the ever-growing list of stars who have left their California neighborhoods through the years.
Mark Wahlberg and Rhea Durham
Boston native Mark Wahlberg revealed that he and his family made the decision to leave Los Angeles for Las Vegas because he had achieved his dreams of being an actor and wanted his kids to work on reaching their own goals.
“I spent lots of time in LA pursuing my interests and my career, and now it’s time for them to pursue theirs. Everybody is thriving there. It’s been great,” the “Ted” star told E! News in April.
During an appearance on “The Talk,” he added that living in Vegas “made a lot more sense.”
“So, to be able to give my kids a better life and follow and pursue their dreams, whether it be my daughter as an equestrian, my son as a basketball player, my younger son as a golfer,” he explained in October.
“We came here to just kind of give ourselves a new look, a fresh start for the kids. There’s lot of opportunity here. I’m really excited about the future,” he added. “I saw Adele. I saw Bruno Mars. I’ve seen quite a few shows and been to lots of great restaurants. There’s so much to do in Vegas, and it’s so exciting.”
Julia Roberts and Danny Moder
“Pretty Woman” star Julia Roberts fled Hollywood for her Taos, New Mexico, ranch nearly two decades ago.
Roberts, 55, told former talk show host Oprah Winfrey in 2003 that the 32-acre ranch was where she felt “most at home.”
“Around here, I come and go like it’s nothing,” she said. “Los Angeles is such a town of show business, and I’m a terrible celebrity. I find it difficult — it’s the beast that must be fed.”
Roberts and her husband, Danny Moder, used the $2.5 million property as the location of their 2002 wedding.
The “Ticket to Paradise” actress purchased the land in 1990 and used it as a second home before making it her primary residence after giving birth to twins Phinnaeus and Hazel.
In a 2018 interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Roberts noted that she doesn’t think her kids “will ever have a true sense” of how famous she is.
Josh Brolin and Kathryn Boyd
“Avengers” star Josh Brolin, 55, and his wife, Kathryn Boyd, left Hollywood in 2020 as the coronavirus ravaged California.
The couple and their two children currently reside in Kathryn’s hometown of Atlanta.
“It’s truly a beautiful, bizarre feeling moving back to my hometown,” wrote Kathryn in a since-deleted Instagram post. “Not sure how long we will be here, but all I know is it feels so good to be home. Feels so good to have family stopping by on their way somewhere and hanging on our front porch.”
Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves
Texas native Matthew McConaughey, 53 and his wife, Camila Alves, left the bright lights of Hollywood for the plains of Texas in 2012 after the pair said that they wanted to raise their kids away from the glitz and glam of Los Angeles.
“It’s been great,” Alves, 41, told Fox News in April 2022. “It really embodies our belief system, especially the ones I grew up with, like going to church every Sunday, saying ‘yes, ma’am’ or ‘no, sir.’
“For me, being from Brazil and then coming to Texas, I discovered a lot of similarities in terms of what families practice here, especially going to church on Sundays, and being very into the outdoors,” continued the former model. “It’s been a great transition.”
Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban
AMC sensation Nicole Kidman and her husband, Keith Urban, ended up in Tennessee after flying away from the starry environs of Hollywood in 2007.
According to the “Big Little Lies” star, she was always meant to live in the Volunteer State.
“That country music community is a very warm community,” Kidman, 56, raved in a 2016 interview with Jess Cagle for People. “It’s very protective. Keith’s been a part of it for decades now. It’s his home, it’s our home.”
“I’m just lucky that I fell in love with a guy that lived in Nashville, because I was meant to go there. I’m very, very happy to live there,” added the “Moulin Rouge” star.
Amanda Seyfried and Thomas Sadoski
She may not have jetted off to the Greek Isles, but she sure does love upstate New York.
Amanda Seyfried, 37, and her husband, Thomas Sadoski, left Tinseltown in 2021 for a farm in the Catskills, which the “Mean Girls” actress purchased in 2014.
“It’s insane how much I can feel so accomplished and successful here without having to be in a successful movie,” Seyfried told the New York Times in November 2020.
The “Mamma Mia!” star and her family moved into the farmhouse — which they share with a donkey and several chickens, horses and goats — full-time during the coronavirus pandemic.
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively said “See ya!” to Hollywood in 2012 after the power couple bought a $2.3 million home in Pound Ridge, New York, following just six months of dating.
“We don’t live in LA. We live on a farm in New York,” said the “Deadpool” star during an interview with The Project in 2015. “And we don’t lead a wild and crazy life. It’s not that hard. It’s not a big deal.”
Both Lively, 36, and Reynolds, 46, are famous for being extremely private regarding their personal lives — even though they often attend red carpet events for work.
When asked how he maintains the discretion, the “Proposal” star claimed it was a “fine line.”
“I think it’s always a fine line,” said the father of four. “I’ve never been the guy stumbling out of bars at three in the morning, at least that anyone is aware of. It’s never been my thing.
“I think it’s keeping a boundary that there’s this world that is the job, and the world that is the home,” he added.
Even though the couple spends the majority of their time in their upstate home, Lively and Reynolds are known to have purchased an incredibly chic Tribeca apartment that Swiftes might recognize from her “All Too Well” music video.
Dean Cain
This former Superman blasted out of California citing “terrible” policies that have led to surges in crime, taxes and homelessness.
“I love California. It’s the most beautiful state. Everything’s wonderful about it except for the policies. The policies are just terrible. The fiscal policies, the soft-on-crime policies, the homelessness policies,” the actor told Fox News in June.
“The things that our leaders in California have been doing have driven out anybody who can really afford to get out,” he continued. “People are flocking out of there in droves.”
John Goodman
John Goodman fled California and Hollywood due to the fact he’d “kind of had it with show business and the publicity.”
“I wanted to get away from Los Angeles. The options were St. Louis or New Orleans,” Goodman, 71, told Garden & Gun magazine in 2014, adding that he also wanted to get his kid away from that world.
“The Big Lebowski” star hightailed it out of Hollywood with his wife, Anna Beth Goodman, and daughter, Molly, in 1989 and settled in New Orleans.
“We got as far as buying land in St. Louis. But Anna Beth started designing a house that got to be the size of Buckingham Palace and I said, ‘This ain’t gonna work out,’” he explained. “So we chucked it and bought a haunted house [in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans] instead.”
Danica McKellar
The “Wonder Years” star Danica McKellar packed up her Los Angeles residence and moved to rural Tennessee.
“My husband and I have been wanting more nature for a long time. We were kind of ready to not be in a city anymore,” McKellar told People in 2022. “I am just loving the fact that my Christmas movie characters have rubbed off on me. I think it’s just a wonderful example of life imitating art.”
“Memphis and Nashville are both entertainment cities. They’re known for music … Being from LA and being an entertainer, it’s nice to have creative people around,” added the actress.
