9 Celebrities Who Moved Their Families Away From Hollywood

Published: July 11, 2026

Candace Cameron Bure — Photo courtesy of Movieguide®

By Claude AI

When it comes to the lime light, many celebrities are saying no more. They’re packing up their families and headed away from that Hollywood sign.

“We didn’t feel safe anymore,” Candace Cameron Bure told Fox News about her family’s decision to leave Los Angeles, “and that was the biggest reason that we moved.” Turns out, she’s got plenty of company.

These nine actors swapped Tinseltown for towns where nobody recognizes them at the grocery store, all in pursuit of a calmer place to raise their kids.

Candace Cameron Bure

Candace Cameron Bure and her husband, retired NHL player Valeri Bure, left Los Angeles behind but didn’t leave California, settling further north for privacy and safety.

“Not everyone in Hollywood lives behind guard gates,” Bure said. “We weren’t behind gates, and we’ve had quite a few problems over the years with people, just, cameras and hiding, and people just coming up to our door.”

Matthew McConaughey

Matthew McConaughey moved his family from Malibu back to his hometown of Austin, Texas, in 2014, wanting his kids close to their grandmother and uncles.

“My family is here, my mom is here, she’s 92,” McConaughey explained. “I’ve got brothers in Houston…Midland. Our family unit is here, we have resources and security here.”

Mark Wahlberg

Mark Wahlberg sold his Los Angeles mansion in 2022 and relocated his wife, Rhea Durham, and their four kids to Las Vegas.

“It’s really giving the kids a chance to thrive,” Wahlberg said. “I moved to California many years ago to pursue acting, and I’ve only made a couple of movies in the entire time that I was there.”

James Van Der Beek

James Van Der Beek and his wife, Kimberly, moved their six kids from Los Angeles to Austin, craving a more hands-on kind of community.

“We wanted to get the kids out of Los Angeles,” Van Der Beek said. “We wanted to give them space and we wanted them to live in nature.”

Katherine Heigl

Katherine Heigl left Hollywood for a ranch outside Park City, Utah, after stepping away from GREY’S ANATOMY, determined to keep a closer eye on her three kids.

“I didn’t know how to raise them in L.A.,” Heigl told Fox News. “So I felt like I could do it here. I could be more on top of things that scare me.”

Julia Roberts

Julia Roberts has called her ranch in Taos, New Mexico, home since the early 2000s, trading red carpets for mountain quiet.

“I’m a terrible celebrity,” Roberts told Oprah Winfrey. “I find it difficult, it’s the beast that must be fed.”

Jonah Hill

Jonah Hill and his wife, Olivia Millar, left Los Angeles for a small town outside San Diego, where they’re raising their two kids.

“I live in a very small town in San Diego, and it’s amazing, and my neighbors are incredible people,” Hill said on the “SmartLess” podcast.

Mark Ruffalo

Mark Ruffalo has raised his three kids on a wooded property in New York’s Catskill Mountains for more than a decade.

“The whole guiding idea for living upstate was to simplify,” Ruffalo told Nowness. “We asked ourselves, what do we need all this for? What is it adding to our lives?”

Melissa Joan Hart

Melissa Joan Hart moved back to Nashville, Tennessee, the city she grew up in, and has raised her three kids there ever since.

“Happy Nashville Anniversary to us,” Hart wrote on Instagram, “and a big hug to all the friends, neighbors, teachers and people who have made it such a wonderful place to raise our family.”

Whatever pulled each of them away, safety, family, faith or just a slower pace, the pattern says something about Hollywood itself. Even the people it made famous don’t always want their kids growing up inside it.

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