Less than ten years ago, Ashley Frangipane, nowadays better known around the globe as mononymous entertainer and activist Halsey, was an anonymous teenager uploading her music to various social media platforms. Now, more than six billion streams of her songs later, she’s wildly famous and rich enough spend nearly $10.2 million on English singer and songwriter Liam Payne’s sprawling A-Lister compound that’s squirreled away in the mountains between L.A.’s pricey suburb of Calabasas and the ungodly expensive beach community of Malibu.
Payne, who rocketed to teenage mega-fame and vast fortune as a member of the boy band One Direction, purchased the exquisitely secluded and heavily fortified spread in late 2015 for exactly $10 million. Tucked away on four contiguous parcels that comprise close to 4.75-acres, the compound was first set out for sale in early 2018 with a spectacularly optimistic $14 million asking price that by early 2019 had dropped to just under $13 million. The price eventually fell to a final ask of $10.5 million and, over the last couple of years, the park-like sanctuary was also offered as a high-end rental, first at $40,000 per month and later at $50,000 per month.
A guard house ensures security and privacy at the picturesque estate’s front gates that swing open to a long driveway that meanders under the leafy canopies of mature specimen trees and over a fairy tale worthy bridge before it circles up in front of the close to 9,700-square-foot main residence. In addition to a handful of bedrooms complemented by 7.5 bathrooms, there are impressive formal living and dining rooms and a richly paneled double-height library encircled by a second-floor gallery. Other spaces of note include a double-height family room, an expensively equipped gourmet kitchen, a plush, professional-grade screening room and a lower level entertaining space with wine cellar.
Comprising waterfalls, koi ponds, vast terraces and lush gardens, the serene and ultra-private compound also includes a resort-style swimming pool and pool house with guest suite and fitness room. There’s also a detached guesthouse, a small recording studio and, set atop a sunny knoll with wrap around views, a meditation/massage pavilion.
The property was jointly listed with Jonah Wilson of Hilton & Hyland and Tomer Fridman at Compass, while Halsey, named as one of Time’s 100 most influential people in 2020, was represented in the deal by Josh Myler at The Agency.
Though she sold her former home in the Beachwood Canyon area of L.A. almost a year ago for $2.375 million — barely above the $2.23 million she paid in 2017, the “Without Me” singer, who collaborated with gigantically successful EDM duo The Chainsmokers on the 2016 hit “Closer” and the insanely popular K-pop septet BTS on their 2019 single “Boy With Luv,” continues to own a carefully updated Richard Dorman-designed midcentury home in Sherman Oaks that was picked up in 2019 for $2.4 million.