Naomi Campbell jetted into London this week to provide a preview of Naomi: In Fashion, her upcoming retrospective at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A).
A fashionable 90 minutes late, of course, the original supermodel has helped to curate 100 of her most iconic looks from her four decades stalking the hottest catwalks.
Born in Lambeth, while technically a London girl the mother of two spends most of her time in New York.
When she is in London, Campbell told the ES Magazine, she loves “to just walk around and explore the city, try out new restaurants, and spend time with the people I love”. Her favourite spot for a stroll is Hyde Park, and she recommends a ride on the Tube to “see and hear the real London”.
Campbell, who began modelling aged just 15, is estimated to have a net worth of $80 million (£68 million).
While the supermodel is extremely private about her New York residence, which can occasionally be glimpsed in the background of her successful YouTube channel, there have been occasional sightings of the grand homes that she has or has once owned.
Here’s what we can glean about Campbell’s glamorous global property portfolio.
New York, USA
The model films her YouTube videos in her New York apartment
In the Noughties, Campbell owned a luxury apartment on 500 Park Avenue with a teak-lined bathroom featuring a sunken tub large enough to fit four people in.
She put it on the market in 2006 for $5.25 million, and the New York Post reported that, along with the huge en suite to the principal bedroom, the three-bedroom apartment featured double-height ceilings, a library, and a vast dressing room.
This was the apartment where Campbell infamously threw a phone at her maid, Ana Scolavino, an act she pleaded guilty to in 2007.
“I had an apartment at 500 Park Avenue,” she told the court. “During the morning of March 30, 2006, I threw a cellphone in the apartment.”
Over a decade later in 2018, the press started reporting that the supermodel was touring luxury apartments in New York with an eye to buy.
The exact price and location of her New York base isn’t widely known, but eagle-eyed viewers of her YouTube channel believe it’s a condo in Tribeca with floor-to-ceiling glass windows, a floating staircase, and sweeping views over the Hudson River.
Moscow, Russia
Between 2008 and 2012, Campbell was in a serious relationship with the Russian billionaire Vladislav Doronin.
In 2010 she confirmed to Metro that she had left London and followed him to Russia.
“I don't live here anymore," she said. "I live in Moscow now permanently and I really love life there. I'm really happy and things are just going really well.”
While the supermodel never confirmed the rumours of an engagement, by 2011 she was seen on front row of London Fashion Week wearing a huge diamond on her ring finger.
Doronin commissioned the late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid to build a house for Campbell, a James Bond-style dacha in an exclusive forested suburb of Moscow.
Called Capital Hill, it was the only private residence designed by Hadid, who died in 2016.
"It's a dream house,” Hadid’s business partner Patrik Schumacher said of Capital Hill. “No architect would refuse such a commission,"
Reported to have cost £109 million to build, the 35,520 square foot mansion featured its own nightclub, swimming pool, and sports hall. A futuristic tower protruding from the main house, accessible via a lift, provided extra rooms with views over the trees.The rumour was that Doronin planned to gift the house to his bride when they married, but the couple split in 2012. In 2016, the billionaire reportedly began to try and sell the home for £117 million, before reducing the asking price to £78 million in 2019.
Cleopatra Island, Turkey
For her 41st birthday in 2011, Doronin reportedly promised Campbell an ultra-modern eco home on a historic island in Turkey’s Gulf of Gökova.
It was a grand romantic gesture inspired by some of history’s greatest lovers.
The island has a rare form of sand made entirely of seashells, and legend has it that Roman general Marc Antony shipped it over specially for his beloved Egyptian queen Cleopatra.
Designed by Spanish architect Luis de Garrido, an expert in sustainable architecture, the 25-bedroom home would have been entirely off-grid with its own energy and water supply.
From above, the house’s main dome and surrounding lines of solar panels was designed to form an Eye of Horus — an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection.
Whether this home was actually built, however, is a mystery. The images appear to be renders and when reporters from Luxury Property Turkey sailed to the island in 2017 they could find no trace of the building.
“The island is a completely protected Turkish open-air museum,” an official told Luxury Property Turkey.
“No one, including Naomi Campbell can hammer one nail into it.’’
Malindi, Kenya
Campbell gave a tour of her Kenyan retreat
One seaside mansion that we know for sure exists is Campbell’s villa in the Kenyan town of Malindi.
The supermodel gave Architect’s Digest an exclusive tour of the property in 2021.
Campbell told the magazine she had been coming to the seaside town since the 1990s and acquired the residence as part of a luxury eco resort built by a friend.
The Billionaire Resort and Retreat in Malindi is owned by Italian businessman and former Formula One boss Flavio Briatore, who dated Campbell from 1998 to 2003.
A saltwater pool extends from the living room of Campbell’s villa, which has a vaulted roof thatched with fronds of palm trees.
The supermodel sourced much of the villa’s furniture from trips to Cairo and Marrakech.
“It’s a very calming place. You don’t really want to be on the phone,” Campbell told the magazine. “You just want to read and be with yourself. It’s nice to just have the silence and the crickets.”
