Celebrity Real Estate: The House Formerly Known as Prince’s

As we wind down a very interesting 2022 and soak up the last of the holiday suds, I thought I would give you some celebrity real estate gossip like it was 1999. A Hollywood Hills home that the one an only Prince himself rented from Former NBA superstar Carlos Boozer back in the early 2000’s for 95k a month is now listed for just under 30M. This home is ripe with history including the fact that the faucets were rigged to dispense scotch, bourbon and champagne.

The home was also outfitted with a nuclear bomb shelter and was the center of a lawsuit when Boozer accused Prince of unleashing purple rain all over the house in the form of stripes and purple carpet. The two ultimately end on good terms when Prince wired Boozer 500k and brought the house back to its original condition upon his exit.

Prince’s Former Home Is Listed for $29.995 Million

Elizabeth Taylor was rumored to have lived in the sprawling Hollywood Hills mansion at one point as well

An eccentric Cold War–era Hollywood Hills mansion that previously housed Prince—and possibly Elizabeth Taylor—has recently come up for sale, with a $29.995 million price tag. The home was originally built in 1953 by contractor Hal B. Hayes, and cost $600,000 to build at the time—or approximately $5.813 million by today’s standards, adjusted for inflation. According to multiple reports, Hayes constructed it with two main priorities in mind: for it to exist as an over-the-top bachelor pad, and for there to be a readily accessible escape route in case of a nuclear attack.

Glamorous features of the bachelor pad included an artificial beach, an orchid grotto, and a unique swimming pool that existed partially outdoors and partially indoors, winding from a tropical lanai through the living room. Hayes reportedly had an underwater tunnel built into one end of the pool, which would lead to a sealed underground cave he could, ostensibly, escape to. His idea was that the pool water would help to decontaminate him from any residual radiation. The six-story home also had voice-activated lighting, a mirrored master suite, and faucets that directly dispensed Scotch, bourbon, and Champagne, according to The Los Angeles Times.

After Hayes fled the United States for Mexico in 1962, the home was expanded into a 14,000-square-foot modern mansion with marble floors, a new motor court, and an all-new grotto. In the early 2000s, it was owned by Utah Jazz player Carlos Boozer, and Prince lived there as a renter during that time. In 2006, Boozer filed a lawsuit claiming that the Purple One had violated his terms of lease by painting the house with purple stripes, installing a purple monogrammed carpet, and adding plumbing and piping “for water transfer for beauty salon chairs,” the Smoking Gun reports. Since then, the home has been expanded yet again—it is now 18,401 square feet—and a tennis court, an indoor sports court, a ballroom, a wine room, and a four-car garage have been added. In images from the listing, it’s clear that the pool remains, though it’s unclear whether the secret underwater tunnel does.