Josh Duhamel
Duhamel, who hails from North Dakota, built a cabin for his two sons — he shares Axl with ex Fergie and Shepherd with wife Audra Mari — “deep in the woods” in Minnesota
“It’s removed from everything,” Duhamel told “The closest store is 40 miles away. Once we get there, it’s really about everybody taking care of each other — making memories, spending time with family and friends. You really get a chance to get back to the basics.”
James Van Der Beek
The Dawson’s Creek alum shared in September 2020 that he and his family would be relocating outside of Los Angeles. “Sometimes a fuller life begins with an empty house,” he wrote via Instagram. “Leaving Los Angeles incredibly grateful for all the friends and memories we’ve made here. Onto the next big adventure!
Chrissy Metz
Years after This Is Us came to an end, for example, star Chrissy Metz relocated from the City of Angels to Nashville. “I was in L.A. for 21 years, but my family is in Florida, where I’m from, and during the pandemic, I could drive to them from here. It’s just a better quality of life here. Everything is 15 minutes away, and it’s just so much less stress. Metz is hardly alone. Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed, who share two kids, left behind their Hollywood life for a farm.
“Walking through the farm with kids and dogs and family, every stop, you’re pulling off of trees or off of bushes, pulling up out of the ground and feeding everyone as you’re moving through the farm “It’s unbelievable when you see these amazing creature life forms and how they all live on the farm together is really special.”
After moving from Los Angeles to Nashville there is “a lot going on” in her new city. “There’s obviously great music, great food. I grew up in the South, so I’m used to sort of that hospitality—it feels more communal here,” she said. “In L.A. it was always like, ‘Oh, you have an audition? What’s it for? Oh, you have an audition? What for?’ It was all very dogs eat dog.”
Jason Segel
After wrapping How I Met Your Mother, Segel left Los Angeles for Ojai, California. “Being there had the interesting side-effect of realizing — after six weeks’ time, mind you — that, ‘Oh, my gosh. I finally feel calm, “And it occurred to me that when you’re doing this job and living in L.A., you’re never leaving campus.” He laughs. “So, it was like this whole new experience to realize that when someone outside of Hollywood asks, ‘What are you up to?’ they mean, like, right now. So the answer is: ‘Oh. I’m on my way to the grocery store,’ not ‘I have three projects in development.’”
Eric Stonestreet
The Modern Family star has been living in Kansas City since the sitcom came to an end — which has led him to have a different perspective on Los Angeles life.
“What I realized it does is it highlights everything great about our business, the entertainment business,” he said during a September 2024 appearance on In Depth with Graham Bensinger. “And it highlights all the douchebaggery of our business. It amplifies it. Because I’m here, I’m dealing with people from here, and I’m going into the store and having all these authentic, real moments, and then I go to Hollywood, and you’re reminded of some of the types of people that you deal with.”
He continued, “But then you’re also offered fruit on a big board. ‘Would you like some lychee and kiwi, sir?’ It’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, this is what’s great about Hollywood.’ … It’s fun. It just amplifies it. It’s like, leaving here and going back and doing something is almost more fun than it was living there, doing it.”
Ali Larter
Larter and her husband, Hayes MacArthur, moved from Los Angeles to a small town in Idaho amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The pair initially took their children on a ski trip in Idaho before deciding to relocate there permanently.
“We fall in love with nature and the mountains and this entire new life,” Larter said during a January 2025 appearance on Live with Kelly and Mark. “We totally pivoted and went for it. We literally had our house [in California] for less than a year. We went back to L.A., and we realized we wanted to put our family first.”
She continued, “Our life is so different there and it’s a small town, and it kind of holds you to a different type of accountability. It’s something that me and Hayes really wanted to do for our children, so we did.”
Jesse Eisenberg
Eisenberg relocated to Indiana with his wife, Anna Strout, who is from the Midwestern state. “I’ve lived in Indiana for a decade on-and-off and that’s where I feel the most comfortable,” “I’m not somebody who wants to surround myself in an industry that just feels kind of unstable.”
Matthew McConaughey
McConaughey left Hollywood for Texas with his wife, Camila Alves. When I was rolling in the rom-coms, and I was the rom-com dude … that was my lane and I liked that lane, that lane paid well, and it was working,“I was so strong in that lane that anything outside of that lane, dramas and stuff that I wanted to do, [they] were like, no, no, no, no, no. Hollywood said, ‘No, no, no, no, you should stay there, stay there.’”
He continued, “Since I couldn’t do what I wanted to do, I stopped doing what I was doing and moved down to the ranch in Texas. I made a pact with my wife and said, ‘I’m not going back to work unless I get offered roles I want to do.’”
Hilarie Burton
The One Tree Hill alum and her husband, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, uprooted their Los Angeles life for a New York working farm. “Living on a farm was always a dream of mine, but I didn’t necessarily know how to make that work with the industry that I am in.
Becca Tobin
Tobin was surprised by the transition out of Los Angeles to Texas. “You mean I can get in my car, drive five minutes and not fight people when I’m in the grocery store to get in a lot?” and you don’t pay for parking anywhere.”
Christy Carlson Romano
The Kim Possible star and her husband, Brendan Rooney, said goodbye to Hollywood and moved to Austin, Texas. “I love that the girls can kind of be out of the Hollywood area,” , “I love California, we have our PodCo offices there. And I also truly feel at home in Austin. I have a strong community of friends there, and I’ve really found a way to set down roots.”
Hilary Swank
Swank and Philip Schneider relocated to Colorado. I have been looking for land since I was in my mid-20s “I find nature to be my happiest place, and animals are my other happiest place. And to be with both are everything to me.”
Mark Wahlberg
Wahlberg reflected on moving to Las Vegas with his family.“I mean, I got to tell you that I miss it right now standing here “I always miss it. I loved it [here]. But raising teenagers who are growing, I wanted to make sure that they’re put, first and foremost, in a good, safe, healthy environment where they can thrive, pursue their interests and goals and go after what they want to do in life. We could always come back.”
Eva Longoria
Longoria told Marie Claire she and husband José Bastón had been living in both Spain and Mexico for the past few years. When asked what made her want to leave Los Angeles, Longoria told the outlet, “The vibe was different. And then Covid happened, and it pushed it over the edge. Whether it’s the homelessness or the taxes — not that I want to s*** on California — it just feels like this chapter in my life is done now.”
Amber Heard
Years after Heard’s defamation trial with ex-husband Johnny Depp, a source exclusively told Us in May 2024 that she resides in Spain with her daughter. “Amber doesn’t want to raise a child in Hollywood,” the insider said, adding that Heard “never liked the energy” of Los Angeles. “She [thinks] Madrid is a more welcoming place for her. She feels safe and secure, and she’s surrounded by better people where she is.”
