Getty TV personality Julie Chen (L) and CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves attend the 89th Annual Academy Awards
Longtime “Big Brother” host Julie Chen Moonves has been married to Leslie Moonves, former head of CBS, since 2004. As the head of a major network and the host of one of its popular reality shows, the Moonveses have owned several properties around the country. Here’s what we know about them.
The Moonveses’ Main Residence Is A Beverly Hills Mansion
According to Variety, Moonves and Chen Moonves purchased their main residence in 2006. Presumably, it is where they still currently reside with their son, Charlie, almost 12, because there have been no records of any sales of the estate. It is a 10,000+ square foot mansion on 1.25 acres of land in Beverly Hills that they purchased for $14 million. Hollywood Pipeline posted aerial photos of the estate here.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the mansion includes a screening room whose walls are covered in linen and wool panels and the wooden surfaces are walnut. The floor plan is in three tiers and can seat as many as 18 guests. The theater also has a powder room for guests that features lighting by the Alison Berger Glassworks, an entryway filled with light from the many windows and decorated with handpainted Gracie wallpaper, and a lounge area with a full bar and wine room.
According to the New York Times, a portrait of the couple hangs in the den off the rose garden. It was painted in 2008 by their artist friend Margaret Rose Perenchio. She used a photograph she had taken of them together when the Moonveses vacationed with Perenchio and her husband, A. Jerrold Perenchio, in Capri. Instead of charging them her normal artist’s fee, she asked them to make a charitable donation instead.
The portrait premiered in Perenchio’s West Hollywood gallery in 2008, then later Moonves took it home to the Beverly Hills mansion.
“We love it,” he told the New York Times. “It looks so right [in the den], in the room where we hang out most.”
They Also Own A Malibu Beach House, Pacific Palisades Condo, and a New York City Apartment
According to Trulia, Moonves and Chen Moonves purchased a $28.8 million Malibu beach house from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2014. The home boasts nearly 6000 square feet, with five bedrooms and seven bathrooms.
This beach house joined their other holdings that include a three-bedroom and three-bathroom condominium in Pacific Palisades and an apartment in New York City, according to Variety. When Chen Moonves celebrated Christmas 2019 in New York City, she posted several shots of that apartment to Instagram. She also visited her childhood home in Queens with her sister, which is below.
But despite all of these lavish homes, Moonves has had his share of scandals. He stepped down as the head of CBS in 2018 after multiple women accused him of sexual assault and misconduct; according to The New York Times, in the course of the investigation into these accusations, Moonves “destroyed evidence and misled investigators.”
In 2019, Gina DeMasi, the mother of Moonves’ granddaughter, Ari, spoke with Page Six about the horrible conditions she and the baby were living in while Moonves’ son Adam, who is Ari’s father, lived a “party boy” life, bouncing between New York and Los Angeles, according to DeMasi. Adam is one of Moonves’ three grown children (Sara and Michael are the other two) from his first marriage, to Nancy Wiesenfeld; Wiesenfeld and Moonves divorced in 2004.
“[Adam Moonves] has a beautiful apartment near Union Square. But he seems fine with his daughter living in poverty. There’s roaches in our apartment, a teeny tiny Chinatown box, I found a roach on her high chair this week, I can’t do laundry downstairs because there’s roaches in the washing machine. I keep the apartment super clean but I am worried about Ari’s health,” said DeMasi.
“Big Brother” season 23 airs Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific times on CBS.
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PHOTOS: Go Inside Julie Chen’s Beverly Hills Home & Other Properties