Ian Somerhalder & Nikki Reed Left Hollywood for a Farm—and They’re Not Looking Back
Bernadette Giacomazzo
Fame looks glamorous from the outside, but Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed decided there’s something better than red‑carpet flashbulbs: sunlight on a vegetable patch. Instead of spending their days in trailers and on transcontinental flights, the couple now wakes up to the hum of bees, the squeal of toddlers, and the rhythm of a regenerative farm they built from scratch.
Their pivot grabbed the attention of The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Show, where hosts Michael and Lauryn Bosstick marveled that the pair “transformed their lives from the chaos of the entertainment industry to living intentionally on a regenerative farm, raising their children close to the land.” But as Somerhalder and Reed share, stepping off the Hollywood hamster wheel was an evolution powered by purpose.
From red carpets to regenerative rows
The turning point came when Reed was pregnant and launching her first business, BaYou with Love, an eco-jewelry line. “I was pregnant, and I’m a busy bee,” she explains. Meanwhile, Somerhalder, jokes about Hollywood’s fickle nature: “No one would hire me.” After 172 episodes of The Vampire Diaries, he’d checked every industry box. Still, he felt he wasn’t living the quality of life he’d earned.
When the spotlight started to feel more like a strobe light, Reed listened to her gut—literally.
Building purpose-driven brands off the grid
Today, the couple pours that restless creative energy into three companies—an eco-jewelry line, a regenerative bourbon brand, and a science-backed supplement company. “We’re here building billion-dollar companies,” Somerhalder says, but adds that he would never again “launch two films, raise two kids, build two companies, and do 110 flights a year.”
Reed echoes the shift from script pages to spreadsheets. “Once I started, I just couldn’t stop. I love my company. I love our company together,” she says. Business, for them, isn’t a vanity project; it’s an extension of their activism. Whether it’s turning recycled tech into jewelry or disrupting the $55 billion supplement aisle, the mission is clear.
Choosing analog over always-on
Privacy was another non-negotiable. “Freedom and privacy and life [are] compromised, and I was not,” Reed admits when the Bossticks asked about the hidden cost of fame. The couple’s solution: move to a far-removed farm, where the nearest neighbor is miles away. “It’s a pain in the ass to get anywhere,” Somerhalder laughs.
Raising kids off the grid also means teaching them to see screens as tools, not tethers. Reed put it plainly: “The world changed a lot with the invention of the iPhone. Technology has moved so fast, and we have not put parameters in place.” Her goal is to model mindful tech habits so their children grow up valuing presence over pixels.
No regrets—just roots and impact
Somerhalder doesn’t miss the craft services table. Acting now feels like “working toward fulfilling someone else’s dream,” he said, whereas building products that can “shift the planet” offers “a higher calling and better use of my time.”
Reed backs him by telling the Bossticks she’s “a workhorse” and “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” That will now powers soil health documentaries, climate-smart spirits, and jewelry forged from e-waste. The couple still tells stories—just ones that feed people and the planet instead of studio executives.
So, if you’re scrolling Instagram wondering why you haven’t seen Damon Salvatore’s smirk or Rosalie Hale’s icy stare lately, take comfort in knowing they’ve traded fangs and flashbulbs for compost and conscience. And in Somerhalder’s words, that swap “wouldn’t make sense” to undo.
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