The Olsen twins and Mary-Kate’s Turtle Bay townhouse. (Olsens: Matt Winkelmeyer/MG18/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)
Update, May 15, 2020: Uh oh. Looks like there’s trouble in Olsen twins paradise for Mary-Kate and her husband of five years, French banker Olivier Sarkozy. Not only has M-K signed a divorce petition, she has gone so far as to request an emergency order from the courts so that she can file for divorce ASAP. New York courts haven’t been accepting filings due to COVID-19, except in case of emergency — and M-K seems to think separating herself from Sarkozy is pretty urgent. (A judge has since denied the request.) People magazine and TMZ report that Sarkozy’s lawyers have asked her to move out of their Manhattan home by the end of May. So it looks like Sarkozy will keep the Turtle Bay townhouse. Will Mary-Kate find a new place of her own in the city? Or maybe move into Ashley’s Greenwich Village condo? We’ll find out soon enough.
Multimillionaire twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen share many things, like their fashion line, the Row, their looks, and a passion for beautiful real estate. After cycling through several properties and both coasts, the twins are now back living in luxurious apartments in New York, each with a style completely its own. And, as it turns out, their old college apartment (which they never actually moved into) is now back on the market. So if you have a spare $17 million lying around, now’s your chance. Let’s take a look at their current and former homes.
Mary-Kate Olsen’s New York City Townhouse
Mary-Kate and her husband, French banker Olivier Sarkozy, moved into an extravagant townhouse in Turtle Bay back in 2014. They paid $13.5 million for the place, which reflects its lavish nature. The ceilings in the living room are inscribed with French poetry; the walls and ceilings throughout feature more custom artwork. The house has both a fountain and rooftop swimming pool. It’s the picture of elegance, the kind of place in which we might be afraid to touch anything. But who knows what the couple has done since they’ve moved in — apparently they’ve put more than $3 million into renovations.
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Ashley Olsen’s New York City Condo
Ashley’s place is definitely on the more modern side — no fountains or French poetry will be found here. She closed on the Greenwich Village condo in 2016 for $6.75 million. It’s a 3,000-square-foot, floor-through unit at 37 E. 12th St., in an 1896 building that Edward Minskoff transformed into a luxury apartment complex. The building website shows how no luxury was spared; you can even scroll through all the materials used in the apartment finishes. Ashley’s hooked up with all the best: Miele, Wolf and Sub-Zero kitchen appliances, plus Calacatta marble.
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It seems that Ashley has always had the more adventurous taste of the two. She bought a beautiful Spanish-style house in Los Angeles in 2007, then sold it in 2010 (at a loss). But in true Olsen fashion, it’s unclear whether or not she ever lived in the house. See pictures below.
Despite their differing tastes in real estate, the twins do have something in common: their love of privacy. Both Mary-Kate and Ashley’s places are accessible via private elevator, so they never have to see the paparazzi coming home or going out. It’s a discreetness they reportedly did not show 10 years ago, when they were renting a place on West 13th Street and apparently raised the ire of their neighbors.
Mary-Kate and Ashley’s NYU Crash Pad
Back in the mid-2000s, both twins attended New York University. Rather than slumming it in the dorms, they decided to buy a penthouse in the West Village for all their student housing needs. They ended up doing a full renovation on the property, but, according to the Observer, never actually lived in it. Instead, they opted to rent two floors of a brownstone in the same neighborhood for $12,000 a month. The West Village penthouse took them years to sell, for much less than intended, to real estate developer Bruce Eichner. He now has it back on the market again, so if you’ve ever been tempted to drop millions on a place the Olsen twins once called home, now’s your chance.
The penthouse at 1 Morton Square has more than 5,000 square feet of space, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, an office, library, and 1,000-bottle, standalone wine fridge. And of course, there are views of the city, water, and the sunset to be had. The eat-in chef’s kitchen has a Sub-Zero refrigerator, Viking range, and separate breakfast area with water views.
With numerous other features — like a clawfoot tub, Calacatta marble, Waterworks fixtures, etc. — this is definitely a high-end property. But Eichner is listing the place for $17.995 million, nearly $10 million more than what he paid for it in 2010. Given that the home has sat on the market for 46 days at time of publication, that might be a tad optimistic.
[This post has been updated and republished.]
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