Stars Who Flat Out Faced Eviction From Their Homes

This feature discusses drug and alcohol misuse, domestic violence, and homophobia. 

There's this assumption many of us make that celebrities are somehow exempt from the struggles of an ordinary person. In some instances, that's most certainly true. The sheer amount of money at their disposal means they'll likely never have to worry about things like paying utility bills on time or covering the cost of that necessary doctor's visit. But it's not always the case. Sometimes fame and fortune aren't enough to shield them from some of the more negative parts of life.

Our proof? These celebrities who have all been evicted from their homes. Like us, many of them have been victims of rising rents while others have been displaced through circumstances out of their control. But whatever the reason, their stories prove that even the wealthiest and most influential folks out there occasionally have to deal with the lousy realities of being a human. Maybe these stories will help you feel a little bit better about your own journey, whatever that may be.

A lot of things have changed for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle since they stepped back as senior working royals in early 2020. They relocated from the U.K. to California and gave up their claim to the royal coffers in an effort to be fully financially independent. Three years later, they were then evicted from their official royal residence, Frogmore Cottage.

Queen Elizabeth II gave the couple the four-bedroom cottage, which is located on the grounds of Windsor Castle, as a wedding gift. Following extensive renovations, which totaled around $2.9 million, the pair moved into the historic home in early 2019. They lived in the residence for about 11 months before packing up and heading to Canada, where, it was thought, they would remain for an extended period of time as working members of the firm. After they announced their change of plans, Harry and Meghan repaid the palace for the renovations and lent their home to Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank.

Still, they held onto the keys to the cottage, staying there every time they'd return to Britain on official or personal business. But that all changed in March 2023 when it was revealed the couple had been asked to leave by King Charles, who planned to give the home to his disgraced brother Prince Andrew. Per The Sun, the eviction was set in motion after Harry's controversial memoir "Spare" was released, and the move was rumored to be in response to the unflattering stories he spilled about his family. 

You'd think things like being a member of the royal family (a la Prince Harry and Meghan Markle) or being a billionaire would mean that you'd be safe from ever facing an eviction. It turns out, neither of those things will actually protect you from getting kicked out of your home. Just ask Jay Z and Beyoncé, one of the richest self-made couples in the country.

In 2015, the power couple was renting a 16,000-square-foot estate in the Hombly Hills area of LA. They were reportedly paying around $200,000 a month for the luxurious pad, which boasted seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a swimming pool, a tennis court, a fitness center, and two libraries. The pair only ever intended to be temporary residents in the rental home, which had been built on speculation (aka without a specific buyer in mind), while they searched for a more permanent place to settle their growing family. But then a buyer scooped the property up from under them, paying a whopping $35.5 million to make it their own.

Jay and Beyoncé apparently weren't interested in buying the home for themselves. As a result, they were reportedly given just 60 days to pack up and get out, per TMZ. Given the Carter's deep pockets, we can't imagine that it was all that difficult for them to find somewhere else to live even on such short notice.

The two better-known Rock-A-Fella Records founders, Jay Z and Dame Dash have had two wildly different trajectories. One is a self-made billionaire with fingers in everything from music to professional sports to the cosmetics industry. The other is essentially a failed businessman who has been evicted twice and has lost almost the entirety of his $50 million fortune.

In 2013, Daily News reported that the former mogul was in so much debt he was close to being evicted from his home in Carmel, New York. In court documents obtained by the outlet Dash wrote, "I am currently several months behind in paying my personal bills. For instance, I am currently over $100,000 behind in rent for the only home in which I live and at risk of being evicted." If he had been given the boot, it wouldn't have been the first time. Three years earlier, the music exec had been evicted from a pair of TriBeCa lofts after failing to pay his mortgage.

His money troubles stemmed from a variety of sources such as his acrimonious divorce from fashion designer Rachel Roy, failed business investments, and various lawsuits. That same year, it also emerged that a $2.8 million federal tax lien had been served against him for unpaid bills from 2005 and 2011, respectively, per TMZ. When Dash finally abandoned his upstate property in late 2013, the landlord claimed to Page Six that the place had been left in a sorry state with an abundance of the former tenant's personal effects left behind. 

In the early '00s, actor Isaiah Washington had a thriving career. A mainstay on the popular medical drama "Grey's Anatomy," his star was finally taking off and he had the paychecks to prove it. Flush with cash, the actor moved his family into a luxurious $20,000-a-month property in the Venice Beach area. He managed to retain the option to buy the home down the line if he were to wind up falling in love with it. Generally, things seemed to be going swimmingly.

Then, in mid-2007, it was announced that the actor had been fired from the popular ABC series after he was accused of using a homophobic slur during an on-set argument. Despite his various attempts to make it right, the network ultimately decided that the best way to handle his transgression was to let him go. Unsurprisingly, with his primary source of income dried up, the star began to experience financial issues.

In March 2009, just about a year and a half after he'd been fired from "Grey's," the owner of Washington's home filed eviction papers. Per People, according to the court documents, the actor hadn't paid rent in five months and owed $100,000 in back rent — a sum that was expected to be paid in full within three days. Perez Hilton later reported that Washington and his family were subsequently spotted packing boxes and vacating the premises, with the star's former landlord stating, "They are very nice people, this is an unfortunate matter."

Isaiah Washington's landlord may have given him quite a bit of leeway before he began the eviction process, letting the actor rack up $100,000 in unpaid bills, but Kenya Moore's landlord wasn't nearly as generous. In 2013 the "Real Housewives of Atlanta" star was evicted after she fell behind by just $848 in rent, per Radar.

The six-bedroom, six-bathroom mansion the reality star had been living in cost a whopping $3,999 a month. According to the tabloid, neighbors had complained about Moore almost from the moment she moved in, calling her the "neighbor from hell" and bemoaning the attention and chaos she unwittingly brought to the area. This likely had quite a bit to do with the homeowner being so eager to get her out.

Unsurprisingly, Moore wasn't ready to let the house go without a fight. During an episode of "The Wendy Williams Show" (via The State Journal-Register), the reality star shared her opinion on the situation. "This is absolutely absurd. I've paid this woman nearly $52,000 in rent and she has a $6,000 security deposit of mine," she said. "I have paid her May rent and paid her June and my lease is up in three weeks, so this whole thing is absolutely ridiculous." In the end, the court sided with her landlord and Moore had to pay $2,520 in back rent, $4,387 in utilities and maintenance, $800 in late fees, and $2,000 in eviction fees before vacating the house.

Kenya Moore isn't the only Housewife to face eviction. Her co-star, Kim Zolciak-Biermann, has been on the verge of losing her home on multiple occasions.

The first time Kim faced eviction was back in 2014. At the time, she, and her new husband Kroy Biermann, were in the process of finishing up the build of their dream Atlanta mansion. Money had already been a bit of an issue — they'd had to take out an emergency $300,000 loan just to have enough cash to pay the craftsmen — and then the couple was hit with a tax lien. According to documents obtained by Radar, the pair owed the City of Milton and the State of Georgia a combined $12,237. A judge ruled they had to pay up within 90 days or their half-finished house would be seized.

The reality stars were apparently able to come up with the money because they moved into the mansion not long after. But their money troubles didn't end there. In 2023, it was announced that the Alpharetta home was in foreclosure and would be auctioned off in early March. People reported that the whole thing started when the pair defaulted on a $1.65 million loan they had taken out on the property. For her part, Kim insisted that the whole thing was just a misunderstanding and that they wouldn't actually be evicted. So far, that seems to be true, as the family still lives in the home as of this writing, though it isn't clear exactly what changed.

Back in 2016, Tyga may have been dating one of the richest women in Hollywood — Kylie Jenner— but his own finances were far from in order. Within the span of a single year, the rapper was hit with three eviction cases on three different LA-area homes. It all started in the summer of 2015 when it was reported that courts had ordered the "Rack City" rapper to pay $80,000 of back rent on a property he'd be living in for several months. While the details on this situation are a little sparse, we'd have to imagine eviction was at least on the table given how much he owed.

Months later, TMZ reported that another landlord was suing the star for the $70,000 in back rent he was owed, this time on a property in Jenner's gated Calabasas neighborhood. Tyga fought back this time, filing a countersuit saying he had entered into a contractual agreement to buy the property and had made a $200,000 down payment, meaning he was technically no longer a renter. 

In early 2016, he was then hit with a third eviction suit. Per Page Six, Tyga had been living in the $4.8 million, Hollywood Hills abode for just three months, but hadn't been paying rent for at least part of that time. Once again, it's not immediately clear how the situation was resolved, but we wouldn't be surprised to find that Tyga had been kicked out of yet another home.

After releasing "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" in 1998, Grammy-winning recording artist Lauryn Hill all but disappeared from the public eye. In the handful of interviews she's given in the intervening decades she's always cited an aversion to so much exposure and difficulties in her personal life as her primary reason for leaving fame and fortune behind. Additionally, Hill has long maintained that there wasn't much "fortune" to her career as she made very little from her success. In a lengthy Tumblr blog posted in 2012, she even claimed that she had been exploited by the music industry.

A year later, the "Ex-Factor" rapper was evicted from her New Jersey mansion. Vibe reported that she had been living in the house since 2009, but had stopped paying rent at least a month prior to the suit being filed. Her landlord had tried to settle things with the songstress privately, but when she refused to pay the back rent she owed or move out of the house, he was forced to take legal action.

We'd also have to imagine that the landlord had gotten wind of Hill's other legal troubles, and wanted to get his money while that was still a possibility. In 2012, Hill was convicted of tax evasion and wound up spending three months in jail. Just prior to serving her sentence, the musician agreed to pay $7,000 and vacate the property. In a Tumblr post written at the time, Hill claimed that tabloid reports regarding her eviction situation had been misleading and inaccurate. 

All things considered, 2014 was a truly horrible year for actor Columbus Short. In the early months of the year, he was sentenced to three years probation and two years community service for a felony assault charge after knocking a man unconscious in a bar fight, per The Hollywood Reporter. A month later, TMZ reported that his wife Tanee Short had filed a restraining order against him after a domestic incident in which he threatened her life as well as his own. By the end of the year, his bad behavior cost him his job on the hit series, "Scandal."

Newly unemployed with a looming divorce and a criminal assault case still hanging over his head, Short's life went from bad to worse when he was evicted from his Los Angeles home. TMZ reported the actor had fallen a month behind in rent on his $6,995 per month apartment. Apparently, his landlord wasn't convinced that the jobless tenant would be able to come up with that back rent — or any future rent, for that matter — and wanted him out sooner than later. In the end, Short vacated the property before the court-ordered five-day mark.

Speaking to Access Hollywood in 2014 (via Variety), Short admitted that at the time, he was experiencing issues with drug and alcohol misuse following a great deal of personal loss and tragedy. "I was using unhealthy ways to kind of self-medicate ... and I just lost myself," he said.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.

In the early 2010s, Bobbi Kristina Brown was going through a rough time. Her famous mother, Whitney Houston, died in 2012, and the loss understandably hit the 19-year-old hard. Estranged from her father Bobby Brown, following some family infighting, her support system seemed shaky, at best. Additionally, her subsequent relationship with her foster brother-turned-fiance, Nick Gordon, wasn't widely accepted by the remaining members of her inner circle and she was also speculated to be misusing drugs and alcohol.

In 2013, the young couple was evicted from their Alpharetta, Georgia apartment following a series of noise complaints from neighbors that spanned six months, per Insider. When they finally departed the unit they left a nasty note for their downstairs neighbor, which was posted on Reddit. It read, in part, "Thanks. You are all s*** on the bottom of our shoe. Thank you for making a hard year harder. You are a miserable couple and always will be."

It's unclear where, exactly, the couple moved next. However, just a year and a half later, Bobbi tragically died in a manner similar to that of her late mom, when her body was found unresponsive in a bathtub. An autopsy later suggested that drug intoxication likely played a part in her death. Five years later, Gordon also died from a drug overdose. 

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

In 2012, Amanda Bynes began a downward spiral that would eventually see her completing several stints in rehab, butting heads with the law over and over again, and being placed in a Britney Spears-style conservatorship. In the midst of the chaos, the "What a Girl Wants" actor was essentially evicted from her NYC apartment.

In September 2012, the troubled starlet moved from her native California to New York City. The relocation seemed in part a way for her to get away from some of the negative influences and routines she surrounded herself with in Hollywood. Unfortunately, the cross-country move wasn't enough to shake her free of her troubles.

From the jump, it seems her behavior made Bynes a fairly undesirable neighbor. When photographer Giovanni Arnold was invited inside the apartment by the star herself, he told In Touch (via Radar), that the unit looked to be a full-blown party pad, complete with spray-painted windows, drug paraphernalia, and no furniture. On at least one occasion, Bynes was reportedly caught smoking marijuana in the lobby of her building, with neighbors complaining that there was an almost constant smell of weed smoke drifting from her home. 

After an episode where police were called to reign in the antics, the actor threw a bong from her 36th-floor window, and her landlord finally made moves to evict her. According to TMZ, the building's owner sent a letter to Bynes informing her that the lease would be terminated. Rather than fighting the decision, she just up and moved.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Rock star Courtney Love is no stranger to being in trouble with the law. Over the years, the former spouse of Kurt Cobain has been involved in everything from libel lawsuits to an alleged plot to kidnap her former son-in-law (she denied the allegations, per Fox 11). So it really shouldn't come as a big surprise that she's also faced legal proceedings surrounding her NYC apartment.

In 2011, the "Celebrity Skin" singer was fighting eviction from her West Village townhouse. She was being charged with falling $54,000 behind in rent, setting fire to the unit, and redecorating — which apparently went against the terms of her lease. For her part, the celeb claimed to Page Six (via HuffPost) that she was current on the $27,000 a month payments and had asked for, and received, permission to redecorate before hiring painters and designers agreed upon by both parties. Love's lawyer also accused the landlord of trying to evict the singer so that they could bring publicity to the building that they were trying to sell.

In the end, an NYC judge sided with Love, tossing the case altogether and allowing the rocker to remain in her swanky pad, per E! News. Or at least, she did for a time. As of 2019, she had moved to London where she planned to focus on rewriting her tell-all memoir while recording some new music. 

Considering the intimate knowledge "To Catch a Predator" host Chris Hansen has of crime and its consequences, it's shocking that he'd allow himself to slip into that path. But slip, he most certainly did. In 2019, the journalist found himself in hot water over a series of bad checks and missing money.

In January of that year, Hansen turned himself into the authorities after a $13,000 check he had written to a local vendor bounced. Per the New York Post, it wasn't the first time he'd written a bad check, and despite telling the vendor he'd make it right ASAP he never followed through with the money. As a result, Connecticut police issued an arrest warrant for Hansen, resulting in him pulling up to the station to get everything sorted out. It turns out, the bad checks were likely being written because Hansen didn't actually have any cash in the bank.

How do we know this? Well around the same time this was all happening, TMZ reported that Hansen was being evicted from his NYC apartment. According to the landlord, the "Dateline" contributor owed $4,000 in back rent and had asked Hansen to remove himself and his belongings from the rental within 10 days. As far as we can tell, he complied with the request, and it seems things have started to turn around for him since then. In 2020, he signed on with Paramount to produce a documentary about Peter Nygard, and his podcast, "Predators I've Caught" also took off that year.

Finally, "Real Housewives of Orange County" star Lynne Curtin's eviction predicament featured heavily on a season of the series, proving once and for all that many of our favorite reality stars are likely living beyond their means.

During an episode of the show, it all went down like this: Curtin's two teenage daughters were served eviction papers for their massive California rental home. Upon discovering this, the star confronted her husband, Frank, who explained that the family is essentially broke and that he hadn't paid the $10,000 security deposit required by the owner. Stunned, Curtin fumed at her man, who had kept her entirely in the dark about their financial position up until that point. The incident eventually led to the couple's divorce.

It turned out broke-as-a-joke wasn't even an exaggeration when it came to Curtin's situation. In court documents obtained by TMZ, the reality star claimed to only have $100 to her name and stated that she had been living off of $500 a month for quite some time. It's unclear whether or not the Curtins were actually evicted from that house or whether they chose to leave of their own volition, but Lynne seems to be doing much better these days. As of this writing, the licensed esthetician is gainfully employed and continues to work on her jewelry line.