“Obviously, it’s kind of devastating,” the actor said on Thursday, Jan. 9
Photo: Isabel Infantes/PA Images via Getty
Mel Gibson is among the multiple celebrities to have lost a home in the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.
During an appearance on NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas Reports Thursday, Jan. 9, the actor revealed that his Malibu home was destroyed while he was filming in Austin, Texas.
“Obviously, it’s kind of devastating. It’s emotional,” said Gibson, 69. “You live there for a long time, and you had all your stuff.”
“I had my stuff there, and it’s all like, I’ve been relieved from the burden of my stuff, because it’s all in cinders,” he added.
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Gibson added that he “was kind of ill at ease” about being out of town while fires continue to rage in Los Angeles.
“I knew my neighborhood was on fire, so I thought, ‘I wonder if my place is still there.’ But when I got home, sure enough, it wasn’t there,” the Braveheart actor added.
“I went home and I said to myself, ‘Well, at least I haven’t got any of those pesky plumbing problems anymore,’ ” he joked to host Vargas.
Gibson added that his “chickens survived, it was amazing,” and added that he believed his neighbors, including Ed Harris, had also been affected.
“It was completely toasted,” he said of his own property.
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While revealing some of the “personal things” that got destroyed in the blaze, Gibson said, “All kinds of stuff — everything from photographs to files to just personal things that I had from over the years, and clothing. Pretty cool stuff, but you know, that can all be replaced. These are only things.”
“The good news is that those in my family and those I love are all well, and we’re all happy and healthy and out of harm’s way, that’s all I can care about, really,” the filmmaker said, after confirming his partner Rosalind Ross and the family had previously evacuated.
Rosalind Ross and Mel Gibson in Cannes, France, on May 22, 2016. Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis/Getty
More than 80,000 people have left their homes amid the fires so far, while thousands of structures have been destroyed or damaged and Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said the death toll remains unknown.
A fast-growing blaze started on Tuesday, Jan. 7 in the Pacific Palisades area, with the fire being fueled in part by extremely strong winds. The Eaton Fire (also called the Close Fire) followed, and it was reported on Wednesday evening that a new blaze had broken out in the Hollywood Hills.
Firefighters battle wind and fires as homes go up in flames in Malibu, California, on Jan. 8, 2025. David Crane/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty
Leighton Meester and Adam Brody, Anna Faris, Ricki Lake, Cameron Mathison, Paris Hilton, Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag Pratt, are among the many celebrities to have so far confirmed their homes have been destroyed.
On Thursday, Hilton, 43, shared a video on Instagram showing the shocking remains of her Malibu home.
“I’m standing here in what used to be our home, and the heartbreak is truly indescribable.💔🥺,” her caption included. “When I first saw the news, I was in complete shock — I couldn’t process it.”
“But now, standing here and seeing it with my own eyes, it feels like my heart has shattered into a million pieces.😢💔,” she added.