Worth: $50 MillionMagic mogul David Copperfield dropped a whopping $50 million on Musha Cay island in 2006. The property is situated in the beautiful Bahamas, and Copperfield has turned it into a paradise that you can rent out – for $57,000 per night. After the initial buy, he spent an additional $40 million to create “the most magical vacation destination in the world,” as he calls it. Among the list of high-profile guests to stay on the property are Johnny Depp, Oprah Winfrey, and Bill Gates.
And magical it is, as the nightly paradise includes gorgeous beaches with day beds, a steam room, an outdoor movie theatre, and a private speedboat for you to cruise around at your leisure. But Musha Cay isn’t actually one island at all – it’s four of them that come together to create the shape of a shark. Which makes it official that David Copperfield takes the cake on this list so far for the highest number of islands owned at one time. Abracadabra!
Robin Williams - Pender Harbor, British Columbia
Worth: Undisclosed AmountRobin Williams’ death broke the hearts of people everywhere, but it hit his family especially hard, as you can imagine. That’s why, when the late actor passed away, they opted to hang on to his island in Pender Harbor, British Columbia, rather than sell it off.
Williams passed away in 2014, and it’s still a sore subject for so many, considering the way it all happened. But his children chose to honor him and hang on to the little slice of northern paradise in BC. They had taken a lot of family vacations to the area and wanted to hold on to those moments, and now they’ll have them forever.
Louis Bacon - Robins Island, Long Island, NY
Worth: $11 millionRobins Island is a 435-acre piece of land off of the coast of New York. Wall Street billionaire Louis Bacon purchased it in 1993 for $11 million from Suffolk County. Right before he bought it, it was almost transferred to a developer who wanted to turn it into a luxury residential area with two dozen homes, but the deal fell through.
The island is home to two mansions secluded in the center of the land and surrounded by two lakes. Since it’s been under his care, Bacon has done a lot to restore the natural beauty of the island. The previous owners had harvested oak trees from the property to be used for lumber, so he brought new ones in and planted them in their place. He also hosts hunting activities to keep the local wildlife populations under control, including deer and pheasants.
Michael Schumacher - Dubai
Worth: $7 MillionUnlike the other names on this list (or, most of them anyway) racecar driver Michael Schumacher was gifted his island. The $7 million piece of manmade property off the coast of Dubai was a present from the country’s crown prince, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The prince, who’s apparently a fan of Formula 1racing, gifted the driver the island after his completion of the Grand Prix at Interlagos.
Schumacher’s island is one of the several hundred that come together to form “The World” islands in Dubai. His is near the southern tip of “Antarctica,” in the map-shaped section of property. Now, in the real world, being in Antarctica probably isn’t much fun throughout the majority of the year. After all, it is the North Pole. But hey, who’s going to complain when they receive such a generous gift, especially when that gift is from royalty. It must be pretty incredible to have people in your life who give you islands to show their support!
Paul Allen - Allan Island, Washington
Worth: $13.5 MillionWhen you’re the co-founder of multibillion-dollar corporation like Microsoft, it only makes sense that you’d splurge on something no one who works for the company can afford – like your own island. Paul Allen purchased Allan Island, a 292-acre private island off of the coast of Washington in 1992. He spent $13.5 billion on the piece of property.
The large estate includes its own 2,400-foot airstrip, along with a modest caretaker’s cabin. You’d sort of expect there to be more on an island built by a billionaire, especially when you consider the fact there’s no electricity, which would cost approximately $3 million to get wired in. Perhaps he was attracted to the name, but he lost interest, because Paul Allen wound up putting the island back on the market in 2005. He had some trouble offloading it, probably because most people can’t afford islands. Or maybe it was because he listed it at a whopping $25 million. He wound up selling it for a cool $8 million in 2013.