Turns out it was indeed media mogul Patrick Whitesell, as had been widely rumored, who last year paid $42.9 million for a massive and particularly lavish Los Angeles house. Set behind gates and an exceptionally long driveway on one of Holmby Hills’ most prestigious streets, the custom Tuscan-style villa had been listed at nearly $60 million by the seller, local businessman Jack Rimokh. By the time it was scooped up by an LLC front for Whitesell — a former talent agent and the executive chairman of Endeavor, who with longtime business partner Ari Emanuel reportedly owns Endeavor shares worth $840 million — the asking price had cratered to $51.5 million.
Despite his entertainment industry success and obviously vast wealth, Whitesell isn’t exactly a household name. To the casual news follower, the 57-year-old Iowa native probably best known for his very public split from first wife Lauren Sanchez and subsequent marriage to his current wife, Australian model/actress Pia Whitesell, née Miller. (Sanchez, a veteran L.A. entertainment reporter and journalist, is now coupled with Jeff Bezos.)
Custom-built in 2001 and first owned by late Williams-Sonoma CEO W. Howard Lester, the Holmby Hills estate spans 1.35 acres and features a main mansion and two-story guesthouse that together span nearly 20,000 square feet of living space, with five bedrooms, eight full bathrooms, five powder rooms and additional maids’ quarters. Lester died in 2010, and his widow sold the L.A. compound two years later for $23 million to Rimokh.
The Whitesells are reportedly giving their new Holmby Hills pad a makeover and thus have not yet moved into the place; they’ve also vacated Whitesell’s longtime Beverly Hills estate, which he shared with Sanchez and put up for sale last year at $22 million. (That 90210 property has not yet sold.) While they wait for renovations to be finalized, the couple is reportedly bunking up in a swanky Malibu oceanfront rental home — when the frequent travelers are not globetrotting, of course.
