Well, that was fast. Less than two months after she first floated the place on the open market with a $25 million asking price, Reese Witherspoon has sold her Los Angeles estate, albeit for a discounted $21.5 million. But that’s still way more than the Oscar-winning actress and producer originally paid about two years ago, when she bought the gracious Brentwood mansion for just under $16 million. The Wall Street Journal first reported the pricey deal.
Records now reveal the buyer is Sabrina Merage Naim, an heiress to the fortune of tasty microwave snack Hot Pockets, which were invented and popularized by Naim’s father David Merage and uncle Paul Merage in the 1980s. In 2002, the brothers sold Hot Pockets’ parent company Chef America to Nestlé for $2.6 billion; at one point, Forbes listed the Merage clan as America’s 139th richest family. Naim is married to real estate developer Shawn Naim; the couple have owned a $6.3 million Santa Monica home since 2016.
It remains unclear if Witherspoon and her family ever actually occupied the Brentwood property — if they did, it wasn’t for very long. The house sat vacant for months before renovations began, and the “Legally Blonde” star did a substantial amount of work to the home. A quick comparison of photos from the time Witherspoon bought the place to the current listing reveals she gave the English Country-style mansion a facelift, with creamy new paint and brighter trim both inside and out. Inside, there are new marble floors in the foyer, new white oak hardwood on the stairs and in the living room, new wrought iron railings and a library that’s been swaddled in a sultry shade of blue. Perhaps most obviously, the chef’s kitchen has been completely redone with new stone counters and designer appliances.
The house sits on 3.1 verdant acres deep in Mandeville Canyon, though it lies down a private lane off the main neighborhood drag. Even from that whisper-quiet lane, the house is totally invisible, set behind big driveway gates and a long, tree-shaded driveway. There’s also a separate service entrance and driveway — also gated — for vendors and staff.
Built in 1993, the rambling structure offers seven bedrooms and 10 bathrooms in more than 10,000 square feet, though there aren’t any shots of the bedrooms included in recent photos. Still, the listing assures us that all the bedrooms offer ensuite baths, including the two guest rooms on the main floor. Upstairs are four “family” bedrooms, plus a deluxe owner’s suite secluded in its own “owner’s wing,” and complete with dual baths and dressing rooms. Also on the premises are two powder rooms, both trimmed in rich slabs of quartzite.
Outside, the magical grounds include vast grassy lawns and mature oak, pine and sycamore trees. The lap pool is surrounded by a large concrete patio, ideal for entertaining, and there’s also a limestone bar area with seating for eight al fresco diners. In addition to the three-car attached garage, the motorcourt and wide main driveway can easily accommodate another dozen automobiles. Naturally, the entire estate is secured and controlled by a state-of-the-art Crestron smart-home system.
Graham Larson of Sotheby’s International Realty held the listing; Danny Brown of Compass repped the buyers.
Forbes says Witherspoon is now the world’s richest actress, with a net worth of $400 million. So it’s likely the burgeoning media mogul and her longtime husband Jim Toth will be bending and snapping themselves into even better digs, though they don’t appear to have yet acquired anything else in the Los Angeles area.
But Witherspoon still owns several properties in an around her Nashville, Tenn. hometown, including an $8.4 million estate acquired just last year. Back in 2020, she sold her $17 million Palisades home to an AutoZone heiress, while her gorgeous Malibu farm was offloaded a few months later to Meg Haney, heiress to a billion-dollar real estate fortune.