Brittany Murphy Bought Her $3.9 Million Home From Britney Spears — It’s Now Worth $19.5 Million
We’ve all fallen down the rabbit hole of watching Hollywood home tours — properties made glamorous by their size and their dramatic history. Frequently passed down from celebrity to celebrity, the older homes often possess more allure than the latest build. The life of an actor can even impact the value of their home. After the Hollywood Hills mansion of Brittany Murphy gained a bad reputation from her untimely death, it was given a makeover that significantly increased its price.
Brittany Murphy died under mysterious circumstances
American actor Brittany Murphy was just seventeen when she landed a prominent supporting role in Clueless. The big break came after years of acting in commercials and small TV shows and marked the realization of a dream Murphy held since she was a child. According to IMDb, she had grown up in a family of performers and musicians. After years of waiting to be discovered, she was making headlines through her starring roles in dramas like8 Mile and Girl, Interrupted.
It wasn’t long, however, before Murphy started receiving media attention for offscreen drama. According to Biography, the $3.9 million home the star had purchased from Britney Spears was beginning to feel like a trap. Within its walls, she served as a caretaker for both her mother and husband, who suffered from neuropathy and a sleep disorder, respectively. Though Murphy continued to act, she found herself with very little alone time — with her housemates even following her to Puerto Rico while she filmed The Caller.
It was here that things began to go wrong. Murphy was removed from the cast of the movie after just one day of shooting. The trio decided to remain in San Juan for vacation. The Hollywood Reporter says it was here that mother Sharon and husband Simon caught Staphylococcus, a severe cold that allegedly prompted a mild heart attack in Simon on the plane ride home. Though Murphy saved her husband’s life on the plane, the bug would soon take her, with Simon following just five months later.
Her Hollywood Hills home was suspected to be cursed
The sudden loss of Murphy at just 32 years old left fans with many questions. The abundance of drugs in her system, the lack of an earlier call to 911, and the similar circumstances in the death of her husband had some suspecting foul play. This murder-mystery aspect, coupled with a strange power outage that occurred just prior to Murphy’s passing, left the mansion with all the qualifications for “haunted house” status.
According to the Daily Mail, Murphy’s mother attempted to sell the home for $7.25 million months before Simon’s death. After finding little success, she accepted a much lower offer that left her with over a $1 million loss.
A makeover increased the home’s value by 500%
Over the course of three years, the Hollywood Hills home was “flipped.” A developer equipped it to be in line with more modern trends. Anyone in the market for a new home — and in possession of nearly $20 million — could take advantage of its new floor-to-ceiling windows and minimalist design.
The mansion began as the home of Britney Spears, in an era where she was best known for her relationship with Justin Timberlake and affinity for jeans. Its shocking transition to tragedy could never have been expected when young, spunky Murphy moved in. We may never know the full story, but we do know one thing: If those walls could talk, every celebrity gossip magazine would quickly be put out of business.
