The Amazing Private Islands of the Rich and Famous

Location: Petre, Lake Mahopac, New York  
Purchased: $12.2 million*
Current Value: $13.45 million*

Superstar former couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt bought a romantic, heart-shaped island off the coast of New York. The Lake Mahopac home wasn’t hot on the market—it had been languishing there for five years before the famous pair picked it up.

Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt / Petre, Lake Mahopac, New York @coastalliving / Pinterest.com | Denis Makarenko / Shutterstock.com

Jolie, whose new movie, Those Who Wish Me Dead, just dropped at AMC and indie theaters everywhere, and Pitt paid $12.2 million for Petre and the home on it, which was designed by famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The main residence on Petra measures 5,000 square feet, and, to get there, the Jolie-Pitts take a fifteen-minute helicopter ride from NYC.

Location: Little Hall’s Pond Cay, Bahamas 
Purchased: $3.6 million*
Current Value: $5.09 million*

The first Pirates of the Caribbean movie was a slam-dunk for Disney, and it has become one of the roles for which Johnny Depp is best-known. Apparently, during filming the swashbuckling pirate epic, Depp fell in love with the Bahamian island set.

Johnny Depp / Little Hall’s Pond Cay, Bahamas @KaaraReitzel / Pinterest.com | ©Tinseltown / Shutterstock.com

He loved it so much that he paid $3.6 million for it. The Disney star nicknamed it “F*** Off Island,” because he intended for it to remain a super-private luxury estate. The forty-five-acre paradise boasts six beaches, solar-powered houses, and a lagoon lined with palm trees. Though Depp’s life hasn’t always been so smooth-sailing, he always has a tropical haven to return to.

Location: Ibiza, Spain 
Purchased: N/A
Current Value: $90,000/week*

Justin Bieber is one of the most famous pop stars in the world, and he vacations like one too, renting out a $90,000-per-week paradise in Ibiza, Spain. Ibiza has long been a hotspot for celebrities of all stripes, and Bieber, along with soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, takes his holidays by renting out Tagomago, an Ibizan island.

Justin Bieber @Приключения Канал IrixGuy / Youtube.com | ©carrie-nelson / Shutterstock.com

The island has its own private waiters and chefs, and you can reach Tagomago by helicopter or boat. Tagomago is just a five-minute boat ride from Ibiza’s famous parties. The mainstay on the island is a five-bedroom villa with a gym, Jacuzzi, sauna, saltwater swimming pool, and water sports equipment.   

Location: The Bahamas 
Purchased: $6 million*
Current Value: $6.5 million*

Though some millionaires on this list bought their private islands as a way to throw lavish parties for their also-famous friends, America’s Sweetheart, Julia Roberts, decided to purchase her Bahamas paradise as a private vacation location for her family. The details have been kept under wraps, but the island’s value is around $6 million.

Julia Roberts / The Bahamas @cvsimply / Pinterest.com | ©taniavolobueva / Shutterstock.com

The Pretty Woman star has always been reticent about her private life (and who could blame her?), but what we do know about the island is that it’s probably very beautiful, surrounded by blue ocean waters, sandy beaches, and green forestry, like nearly every other island in the region.

Location: Gulf of Gokova, Turkey 
Purchased: $48-$50 million*
Current Value: $50-$60 million*

Supermodel Naomi Campbell has a net worth of the hundreds of millions, but if you think that’s impressive, you should see the net worth of her (former) boyfriend, Russian billionaire Vladislav Doronin. Doronin did what Russian billionaires do best: spend money.

Naomi Campbell / Gulf of Gokova, Turkey @admagazinefr / Pinterest.com | ©FeatureFlash Photo Agency / Shutterstock.com

He bought the Revlon spokesmodel a huge, twenty-five-room mansion for her birthday. The Horus Eye Eco-House is shaped like the Eye of Horus. In Egyptian mythology, the Eye of Horus symbolizes health, protection, and restoration. Located on Cleopatra Island in the Turkish Gulf of Gokova, the lavish mansion is energy, food, and water self-sufficient, relying on ingenious bioclimatic design to sustain itself.

Location: Toluca Lake, California 
Purchased: $3.3 million*
Current Value: $2.6 million*

Located in Toluca Lake, California, actress Megan Fox’s home was built in 1936, which is the second home she’s owned from that time period. The actress bought the property for $3.3 million in 2014, but she sold it in 2016 for $700,000 less than that.

Megan Fox @forbesmagazine / Pinterest.com | ©DFree / Shutterstock.com

She also bought another home four years earlier in Los Feliz, California, also from 1936. She purchased it for nearly $3 million before selling it in favor of the picturesque Toluca Lake estate. Fox’s ranch-style Toluca home originally belonged to Bing Crosby as his carriage house. The mansion is seated on an acre of land.

Location: Mago Island, Fiji 
Purchased: $15 million*
Current Value: $20.3 million*

Longtime Hollywood star Mel Gibson purchased Mago Island for $15 million in 2005. It had originally been owned by Tokyu, a Japanese corporation, which kept it pretty remote. There’s one lone airstrip on the island, and, though there’s a small, stone pier, there is no port.

Mel Gibson / Mago Island, Fiji @many_oneof / Twitter.com | ©Tinseltown / Shutterstock.com

It’s the perfect remote getaway for Gibson, though he will no doubt have to shell out a lot of money to get his island abode up and running. Mago, a volcanic island, is one of Fiji’s largest private islands, consisting of 8.5 square miles of land. Currently, the island is inhabited by just a few Indo-Fijan caretakers, who have left it undeveloped.

Location: Watch Hill, Rhode Island, USA
Purchased: $17.75 million*
Current Value: $20 million*

While Taylor Swift’s luxe property might not actually be a private island, the private Rhode Island mansion certainly has about as many perks as one. The massive home is 11,000 square feet and is situated directly on the beach, giving Swift unadulterated views of the Atlantic. 

Taylor Swift's Rhode Island Mansion @Tinseltown / Shutterstock.com and @Jaquaveos Shuford / Pinterest.com

The home is located in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, perfectly set between two beautiful beaches for easy access to everything the area has to offer. And if Swift is trying to duck the crowds, she can simply retire to the large swimming pool on the property.

Location: Taborcillo Island, Panama 
Purchased: Unlisted
Current Value: $14 million*

Isla Taborcillo, also known as John Wayne Island in the media, is a tiny private island located twenty-five miles off the coast of Panama. Taborcillo was once owned by Western actor John Wayne, though it is currently owned by Ralph Hubner, an Austrian businessman and the founder of Who is Who, a publishing company.

John Wayne @LancsFM / Twitter.com | @vladiislands / Pinterest.com

Taborcillo is lovely, and it’s not all island. It has been transformed into a resort-like paradise. It has a theme park, resort hotel, and is a tourist hotspot near Panama. A part of the island is a wildlife sanctuary, where birds like egrets, hummingbirds, and brown pelicans nest.

Location: Tetiaroa, French Polynesia
Purchased: N/A
Current Value: $2,400-$7,400 per night to stay*

Actress Rebel Wilson celebrated her forty-first birthday in style, vacationing at a private island in French Polynesia. The Australian comedian was celebrating her birthday belatedly, as the events of 2020 caused her to have to postpone the celebration. Her party included Pitch Perfect co-stars Brittany Snow and Anna Kenrick.

Rebel Wilson @ourkendrick / Instagram.com

The island in French Polynesia is a Hollywood staple, as it was owned by Marlon Brando. The legendary actor set up a resort there called “The Brando.” The Brando, located on Tetiaroa, was once a vacation spot for members of the Tahiti Royal Family. Now, the island is under a ninety-nine-year lease with Brando.

Location: Mykonos, Greece
Purchased: Unlisted
Current Value: $287 per day to visit Lohan Beach House*

Actress Lindsay Lohan has had quite a wild ride in her life. From being tabloid fodder to straightening her life out somewhat, the Mean Girls star still makes headlines from time to time. Her real estate ventures in Greece have been the biggest headline-makers as of late. In May of 2018, Lohan opened her own nightclub on Mykonos called the Lohan Beach House.

Lindsay Lohan @thelittlestore / Pinterest.com | @CBSNews / Twitter.com

She then opened another beach club, this one located on Ialyssos Beach, Rhodes, which she called Lohan Beach House Rhodes. According to People, Lohan isn’t stopping there. She wants to buy an island in Greece, on which she’ll start her own private resort. 

Location: Orcas Island, Washington
Purchased: $8.3 million*
Current Value: $14 million*

In July of 2021, Oprah Winfrey sold her longtime Washington residence, Orcas Island, for way more than the purchase price. She bought the home In 2018 for $8.3 million, and she sold it for $14 million. The island, also known as Madroneagle, gave her a nearly $6 million return on investment.

Oprah Winfrey @nchasewomack / Pinterest.com ©©Everett Collection/Shutterstock.com

The forty-three-acre waterfront estate was impressive. Orcas Island itself is the largest of the Pacific Northwest’s San Juan Islands, and it is a popular place for people looking to see wildlife and be around nature. Hiking, whale watching, and beautiful sights are just three of the reasons to venture to Orcas Island. Though if you visit, Oprah will no longer be there.

Location: Biak Island, Indonesia
Purchased: TBD
Current Value: Unknown

If you’ve been reading the tech headlines lately, then you’ve probably seen SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space travel company, a time or two. SpaceX is an ambitious project, as it wants humans to land on the moon. Indonesia wants to be a part of SpaceX’s future, and it offered up Biak Island to Musk as a base.

Elon Musk @mpower2013 / Pinterest.com | @ocumedia / Facebook.com

Musk has yet to accept the proposal, but, already, the debate over Biak’s future is raging. Biak isn’t uninhabited, and many of the people who have been there for centuries are the Abrauw indigenous people, along with a dozen other ethnic peoples. Biak is home to 100,000 residents, and it is slightly larger than London. 

Location: Maui, Hawaii
Purchased: $78 million*
Current Value: $78 million*

Jeff Bezos is one of the richest people on the planet, so it’s no surprise that he owns a huge real estate portfolio. Bezos is known for buying up not just the real estate residence he plans to live in, but also the surrounding area for privacy reasons. Bezos recently purchased a tropical estate in Maui, a Hawaiian island, for $78 million.

Jeff Bezos @polandsir / Pinterest.com | ©Spencer Platt / Getty Images

The 2021 purchase includes a spacious, fourteen-acre tropical paradise in La Perouse Bay. The estate is spread out enough that there are no neighbors, so Bezos doesn’t have to do his usual trick of buying up neighboring homes (like he did in D.C.).