Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed firmly stand by their decision to move their family from Hollywood to a farm.
The couple started dating in 2014 and got engaged just six months later. Two years after their 2015 nuptials, Somerhalder and Reed expanded their family with daughter Bodhi. After becoming a mother, Reed suggested that she and Somerhalder move away from Hollywood.
“To be fully transparent about it, I really did not want to be in the public eye anymore,” Reed, who rose to stardom for roles in movies such as Thirteen and Twilight, told Santa Barbara Magazine in 2022. “California has the ability to offer seclusion, but you can also be in driving distance to these major cities at the drop of a hat.”
Reed, who welcomed a son with Somerhalder in June 2023, discussed the pair’s joint love of animals and sustainability efforts. Their home in the countryside featured rain barrels that catch excess water and hydroponic veggie gardens. In addition to composting, Reed noted that she drinks water from her own well when possible and opted out of having a car. The actress said she prefers hand-me-downs as gifts for her daughter and recycles their clothing.
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“If I could like tell you my dream,” she added at the time, “it would be to achieve total food autonomy, to have zero connection to a supermarket, to city water, to anything like that — to be able to live without relying on any system. So, you know, we’re not too far off from that.”
Somerhalder has also opened up about preferring to live on a farm.
“[I love] walking through the farm with kids and dogs and family,” the actor, who is known for playing Damon Salvatore on The Vampire Diaries, told E! in November 2023. “Every stop, you’re pulling off of trees or off of bushes, pulling up out of the ground and feeding everyone as you’re moving through the farm.”
Scroll on for Somerhalder and Reed’s quotes about choosing the countryside over their careers as actors in Hollywood:
Making Memories
“Part of what we really focus on as a household is the idea of being really connected with nature,” Reed told Us Weekly while at the 2nd Annual Environmental Media Association Honors Benefit Gala in September 2019. “My dream would be for [our daughter] to be a farmer.”
Starting Something New
During an interview in May 2022, Reed reflected on her love for the outdoors, telling People, “Nature is the best form of therapy. And it’s instant — you don’t have to spend six months in nature before you feel it. Go on a hike and release endorphins. Look at a tree instead of the blue light on your phone. All of our souls need a dose of that kind of medicine.”
Reed confirmed that her life on the farm inspired a step back from acting.
“It was a very scary pivot for me to leave the only career I had ever known, that I had worked in since I was 13, to try something new,” she added. “But I learned a lot about what’s important to me. A lot of things that came with a Hollywood lifestyle, there isn’t synergy with the priorities I now have in my life and with the people I want to surround myself with.”
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Finding Joy in Their New Home
That same month, Somerhalder pointed out that his and Reed’s move to the countryside was a long time coming for them.
“At the end of the day, we are farm people. Our cars and our boots are covered in dust, horsehair, and tack — and we love it. The life that we have both lived in the entertainment industry and the life that we are creating are vastly different,” he told New Beauty. “The life we thrive in and the life we want to create for our daughter is one of peace, tranquility and nature. Or, at least a nice balance. When mom and dad have to work in the city, the family makes city life fun.”
Somerhalder admitted the duo needed a break from Hollywood after hustling for years.
“I’ve been on the road since I was 16, so has my wife. I think we both have always yearned to live off the land, in a place that’s our land — and that is exactly what we have set out to do and we are doing it,” he concluded. “Our shared love of this life brings us closer together every day and, together, we are building a regenerative and peaceful farm life.”
A New Outlook
According to Somerhalder, the choice to have a quieter life allowed him and Reed to implement more sustainable efforts.
“[It’s been] magic. It’s really the way it’s always supposed to have been,” he told People in August 2022. “I think now you’re seeing a lot of people who were working in corporate offices, and you can see it now from a societal standpoint. People are having a really hard time getting back to work. People have realized that their time and the value of their time and the value proposition of time has shifted a bit. Be more engaged, be outdoors more, spend more time with one another.”
The actor said he didn’t “plan on being on screen for a long time” despite his successful acting career.
“I think what the pandemic sort of did was show us that moments matter. Birthdays matter. Holidays matter. These small little granular moments with one another really matter,” he added. “And that is why Nikki and I find that rural or even urban/rural lifestyle — which I think a lot of people are getting into, whether it’s permaculture, building food forests — we’re past the point of just thinking that we’re going to stop all this by not using plastic straws and driving electric cars.”
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Their New Normal
“I’m an aspiring farmer — literally. I wish I could give it all up to live in nature with the animals. I’m sort of pulled between two worlds, which is the life of a crazy-busy businesswoman, and then someone who really wants to create that quiet time,” Reed told New Beauty in January 2023. “Animals and nature are my peace. That’s where I thrive. … Right now, raising babies is the most important thing for me.”
No Regrets
After hinting at his departure from acting, Somerhalder elaborated on the benefits, telling E! News in January 2023, “I love what I did for a really long time. I love making films, I just did it for so long. We had an amazing run. But this is our 2.0 version — about to be 3.0 version.”
A Hard Days’ Work
“I start my days at 5 [a.m.] and I usually finish them around midnight,” Reed exclusively told Us in May 2024, revealing that the couple grow “over 40 different types of fruits and vegetables” on their land. “It is really full on and full time,” she said.
Reed confessed, “I don’t have a lot of time for myself right now. That’s all right. At some point I will, but I’m working full time. I’m working, definitely, five days a week, but sometimes six and seven.”
Working on the land is exactly what the actress wants her kids to remember about her. “I think that it’s amazing for little people to see a mom who’s ambitious, who’s working, who’s still around 24/7,” Reed added. “I am working and raising babies at the same time and trying to do all of that in the best way that I can. And I’m in it right now and it’s awesome.”
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No ‘Pull’ Back to Hollywood
“I’m really creatively fulfilled in the art that I’m creating,” Reed exclusively told Us that same month, noting that she doesn’t feel a “pull” back to acting. “Sometimes I feel like more of an artist in all the hats that I’m wearing right now.”
She admitted that the “door’s not closed at all” on Hollywood, noting that it would just take the right project to get her back into that space.
“It would come in the form probably, of going back to my roots of writing and where I started in this business, which was with 13,” Reed said, referring to the 2003 film that she cowrote and starred in to begin her career. “[It needs to be] very personal and very meaningful and very intentional.”
