The celebrity hairdresser Charles Worthington is attempting to sell an eight-bedroom villa on the Greek island of Mykonos for €50m (£43m). If the house – which features an infinity swimming pool, whirlpool, gym and entertaining space for more than 200 guests – achieves the huge price tag it will be the highest price ever paid for a property on the island, which is known as a popular summer party destination for gay people from Europe and the US.
Worthington, who has over the years been the go-to hairdresser for celebs including Goldie Hawn, Sharon Stone, Lily James, Tracey Emin, and both Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall, said he was selling the 14,000 sq ft villa in order to start work on a new project on the island.
Worthington, who sold his namesake beauty company to British consumer goods giant PZ Cussons for £37m in 2004, bought the Mykonos property in 2013 with his partner Allan Peters. The couple declined to say how much they paid for the villa, which stands on a dramatic clifftop with direct sunset views.
The property, which is built in the Greek island’s classic stone with white facade, is also being advertised to rent at a cost of €220,000-a-week. The main bedroom suite includes an en suite bathroom, TV lounge opening on to a sea view terrace, dressing area and further reading area.
“With its dramatic elevated location and unrivalled sea views The Cape never fails to deliver the wow factor for residents and guests,” Worthington said of his villa. “It is the perfect setting for private relaxation, intimate dinners with friends and family, and large-scale entertaining. From the windows and terraces the panorama provided is beyond compare, you can watch the superyachts glide into Mykonos harbour, enjoy the sunset and glittering night lights of the Chora, and spy many of the other islands, which sparkle like jewels in the sea. The estate provides total privacy and security, yet the fun and glamour of Mykonos town is 10 minutes away.”
Gary Hersham, founder of estate agency Beauchamp Estates, which is selling the property in partnership with Roi Deldimou, an estate agent who works on the island, described Mykonos as a “beautiful, outstanding and luxurious destination like no other in the world”.
“Catering for the wealthy with superyachts and private jets, as well as fine dining and luxury retail boutiques is it any wonder that discerning people from around the world seek to return time and time again to Mykonos, many choosing to purchase a home.”
Mykonos has been attracting tourists since the 1920s, when archaeologists and antiquity hunters used it as a base to visit the ancient Greek ruins on neighbouring Delos.
It came of age in the 60s when the former US first lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis visited with her second husband, the shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. Following her lead came Grace Kelly, Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren. There are two bars and a hotel dedicated to Jackie O on the island. The island first became a destination for gay visitors in the 70s, when the Italian-American painter Pierro Aversa and a local fisher, Andreas Koutsoukos, set up Pierro’s, an LGBT-friendly bar.
Since then the super-rich have followed. The island’s Psarou Bay has proved particularly popular for superyachts because it is a natural deepwater harbour protected from the notorious meltemi winds.
When the Guardian visited in 2019 there were 11 of them at anchor, including the Maltese Falcon, a $300m (£240m) three-mast sail-powered superyacht built for the Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tom Perkins.
The bay’s Nammos beach club is popular with celebrities such as Kate Moss, Lindsay Lohan, Ariana Grande, Wayne Rooney and Usain Bolt.
In 2017, the one-time-billionaire Philip Green was caught on Instagram at Nammos smashing plates and spraying champagne with the property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz, the Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner and the US designer Tommy Hilfiger.
• This article was amended on 20 June 2023 because the meltemi winds are northerly, rather than north winds as an earlier version described them.
