Over the past few years, celebrities have been fleeing California in droves in search of better lives in other states. One of these celebrities is the former Everybody Loves Raymond star Patricia Heaton, who has ditched Los Angeles for Nashville, Tennessee.
In a new interview, Heaton is opening up about why she made this decision. Her reasoning will come as a surprise to nobody who has been paying attention to what’s been going on in California as of late.
Heaton Flees California
Like many others, Heaton left Los Angeles because of the rampant crime, homelessness and high taxes. She revealed this while talking to host Dave Rubin on “The Rubin Report” about filming her movie Unexpected in Oklahoma.
“We had filmed it in Oklahoma, and then we were filming something somewhere else, and it was outside of LA. And we just thought that the taxes are high. The crime is high. The homelessness is high, and we’re not working in LA as much as we’re working outside of LA. So, why don’t we leave?” explained Heaton, 67.
“And so we just said, ‘Let’s go to Nashville because we were familiar with it.’ We had friends there and, you know, we really haven’t looked back,” she continued. “And when I go back now, I think, ‘Does it feel different to me because I’m not working here anymore or has it really changed?’ And I think there is a little bit of a sadness about it that I think is real, and it’s not just because of my experience.”
Heaton ‘Got Out At The Right Time’
Heaton went on to say that she knows many writers from her previous hit shows, which include both Everybody Loves Raymond and The Middle, who have also left Los Angeles to go back to their hometowns.
“We just got an email from a writer saying, ‘You got out at the right time,'” Heaton recalled. She then lamented that there are now empty sound stages all over Los Angeles.
“Where we shot The Middle, which is on Warner Ranch, which is around the corner from Warner Brothers. It used to house like the Walton house and the Lethal Weapon house and the Bewitched house and the Friends Fountain was all there. And that was all razed to the ground, and they built a ton of soundstages. And then the pandemic happened and the strikes all happened, and there’s just a bunch of empty soundstages there now,” the seasoned actress explained.
Pacific Palisades Fires
Things only got worse with the Pacific Palisades fires that hit L.A. earlier this year. Heaton quickly realized that the city simply wasn’t prepared for the fires.
“I know some of the officials were saying, ‘Well, the system was overwhelmed.’ Well, in case of a huge fire, of course it’s going to be overwhelmed,” Heaton told Fox News in January. “You should know that and have been prepared for that. So, I think there’s a lot of money spent in LA, and we can’t figure out where it’s going.”
Heaton also pointed out that California residents “can’t just rely on the government to take care of things.”
“It’s people coming together in your community and insisting on getting stuff done,” Heaton concluded. “And, sadly, this is a very, very, very harsh lesson.”
Many would argue that what’s happened to California is the result of the radically liberal policies that have plagued the state for years. Indeed, Heaton is far from the only celebrity to flee the state as of late, with others including Sylvester Stallone, Scott Baio, and more.
If California wants to keep the bulk of their rich and famous, perhaps they should reconsider some of the radically liberal policies that many feel have run the state into the ground.
We’re glad that Heaton was able to flee California at the right time and find a better life in Nashville. Here’s hoping that Heaton and her family continue to enjoy Nashville for many years to come!