In what’s beginning to feel more like a predictable script than a fresh start, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi have once again packed up and moved on — this time from their “new life” in the English countryside.
The couple’s grand vision of becoming farmers in the scenic Cotswolds has lasted about as long as a British summer — brief, overhyped, and somewhat soggy in execution.
After former President Donald Trump was elected, Ellen and Portia made headlines for abandoning the United States — the land that made them household names and multi-millionaires — in favor of the rolling hills and horse pastures of the U.K.
They bought a 43-acre estate in Swinbrook, Oxfordshire, dubbed Kitesbridge Farm, reportedly spending around $20 million in November 2024.
Determined to reinvent themselves as quaint country farmers (albeit with a fully staffed estate and indoor pool), the Hollywood pair set about renovating the historic 1700s farmhouse into something more fitting for their brand.
The result? A 16,600-square-foot compound complete with a six-bedroom main house, a two-bedroom guest house, a separate barn converted into a pub, an indoor heated swimming pool, a home gym, and — of course — modern finishes to contrast the rustic bones of the place.
They didn’t go small. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Ellen and Portia reportedly hired about 70 contractors to complete a 12-18 month renovation in less than 5 months.”
That’s a rapid turnaround for a couple who supposedly fled the hustle of American life to embrace a slower, pastoral existence. But the hustle, it seems, never left them.
After pouring an enormous sum into their British “dream farm,” Ellen and Portia stayed in the newly revamped property for approximately one month before deciding it wasn’t quite right — again.
Apparently, Kitesbridge Farm lacked the space necessary for Portia’s horses, which had been flown in from California (as any humble countryside escape requires).
So, what’s next? The couple has now moved to a larger, more contemporary estate — again, in the Cotswolds — leaving their freshly renovated home behind and listing it for a staggering $30 million.
If sold at asking price, it would be the most expensive home ever sold in the region.
For most people, a transatlantic move to a rural part of England would represent a major life shift — a commitment to a simpler life, hard work, and privacy.
But for Ellen and Portia, it’s just another notch in their increasingly long belt of high-end real estate flips.
They’ve become the globe-trotting face of high-speed, high-dollar house-hopping — hardly the picture of grounded, rural living.
It’s not their first rodeo either. Ellen and Portia are known for flipping properties … and now they’re doing it across the pond.
Indeed, the couple has a well-documented habit of buying luxury homes, spending lavishly on renovations, and selling for profit.
But one might wonder if all this moving is less about finding “home” and more about fleeing whatever home really means.
The irony of their failed farming fantasy isn’t lost on observers.
The idea of ditching America’s shores to embrace the idyllic English countryside — only to abandon that idea in record time — feels more like an expensive aesthetic experiment than an earnest lifestyle change.
And despite the glitzy price tags, one month of actual living hardly counts as embracing the agricultural life.
So, what did the great escape from Trump-era America amount to? A quick renovation, a short stay, and another listing on the real estate market.
They may have traded palm trees for rolling hills, but their lifestyle remains as rooted in Hollywood habits as ever.
In the end, Ellen and Portia may have tried to play the role of humble expat farmers, but their exit from the U.S. and subsequent exit from Kitesbridge Farm suggest a deeper truth: farming takes commitment, and no amount of imported horses or heated pools can substitute for grit.
They fled the greatest country in the world for a lifestyle they clearly had no interest in sustaining — a luxury tour dressed up as a back-to-the-land movement.
One thing’s for sure: whether in California or the Cotswolds, Ellen and Portia seem much better suited for flipping homes than turning soil.
