The Real Reason Sandra Lee Was Crying While Moving Out Of Her Home Shared With Andrew Cuomo
It's never easy leaving home. Page Six reported that celebrity chef Sandra Lee was spotted at her Westchester, N.Y. home packing boxes into a moving van on Dec. 14, 2020, and she confirmed the move the same day with a touching tribute on Instagram. "Today will be one of the saddest days of my life. Today is the day that I do the final move out from Lily Pond. I love that house and I have a personal relationship with every single room of that home," she wrote. "I hope the new owners take care of it as well as I did and I will love it forever."
Lee purchased the Mount Kisco home in 2009 for $1.3 million. It has four bedrooms, but "lives like a six-bedroom home," according to its real estate listing. It boasts 4,129 square feet on a 2.89-acre lot, and comes with a gazebo, a creek, and a pond, per The New York Post. Lee and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo shared the Colonial-style house during their 14-year relationship before listing it in May 2019 and subsequently calling it quits in September 2019, after months of breakup speculation.
While breakups are usually not easy, Lee was open to sharing the sadness she felt from a different separation. Keep scrolling to learn the real reason Sandra Lee was crying while moving out of the home she shared with Andrew Cuomo.
Sandra Lee has a lot of love for her former home
Sandra Lee shared with her Instagram followers how much her home, Lily Pond, meant to her, and detailed her "bittersweet" last moments on the property. The author and chef walked through each room to say a proper farewell and also strolled around her whole yard, taking it in from every angle possible and letting herself feel her emotions. "I stopped at the top of the hill where I planted one of 6 tree lines of evergreen trees and 200 daffodil bulbs — I just looked at the house, I prayed the next owners would be kind to it and love it as I did — I cried and cried," she confessed.
Despite her worries, Lee noted that Lily Pond seemed to speak to her and tell her everything would work out. In her post, she explained that as she walked down the hill and looked at her home "one final time," she felt a random gust of wind push against her back. "It was as if the property was saying 'you have the wind at your back now' and with an absolutely broken heart I said 'thank you,'" she said.
This isn't the first time Lee has shared how much she adores the home. She opened her doors to People for a tour just a month before it was listed in 2019.
Sandra Lee put in a decade of work to complete her home
People published a home tour of Sandra Lee's Lily Pond estate, guided by Lee herself, in 2019. In the video, she radiated with pride for her cozy home, which is filled with hand-picked antiques, family photos, and crystals, which Lee says help make the energy of the home so positive.
The celebrity chef has spent years searching through antique shops worldwide to make her home feel just like that. "I am an avid antiquer. I antique every weekend. I know all the best antique shops all over the United States of America and most of the ones in Europe. That is my jam," she beamed. Her favorite room is her office, which features her antique desk, which was the first item she purchased for the entire house.
She also showed off her dining room, dubbed the "Founding Fathers dining room" because it holds copies of letters written by George Washington, James Madison, and other U.S. founding fathers. Finally, she brought viewers into her kitchen, where she showed off her collection of "beautiful white things," saying the room smells like "cookies and feels like heaven."
It is clear Lee has spent years perfecting her dream kitchen, and now she will have a new chance to fill a new home with her old finds. So, what is next for the chef?
Sandra Lee is leaving New York
People reported Sandra Lee's Westchester County home was listed for $2 million in May 2019, and it sold in October 2020 for $1.85 million, according to Page Six. While Lee is heartbroken to leave her house, she is ready to start her new life post-Andrew Cuomo in Los Angeles. She already owned a $7 million Beverly Hills estate which, according to The New York Post, sits among the homes of billionaire Ron Burkle and designer Tom Ford. Plus, in January 2020, she purchased a new 1,719 square feet, $3.38 million home in Malibu, which offers "spectacular coastline views," as reported by Variety.
The permanent move to California is a return to Lee's roots, as she was raised in Santa Monica and worked in Malibu as a waitress before she built her cooking empire. "My sister Kimber and I picked out houses on the Pacific Coast Highway and I promised myself that if I ever made it I would go back and buy myself a house on the water," she told People in a February 2020 interview. "What I believe more than anything is living just an OK life is not OK — we should all live our best lives together. Malibu is just that for me!"
While leaving her cherished New York estate has been hard, it seems like Lee will settle into the West Coast just fine.