Everybody Loves Raymond star Patricia Heaton is opening up about why she ditched Hollywood for Nashville. The sitcom star cited high taxes and rising crime rates in California for the move.
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Appearing on “The Rubin Report”, Heaton opened up about moving to Nashville after filming a movie called 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?” she told Rubin.
“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 explained.
The Everybody Loves Raymond star says going back to California feels a bit different now that she lives elsewhere.
‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ Star Speaks Out
“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 added.
Heaton said that she knows a lot of people, especially writers that have left Los Angeles for other places. The wildfires have especially played a part in some people deciding to get out of Los Angeles.
Even though she’s moved to Nashville, she hasn’t forgotten her former community. She teamed up with LA Dream Center to help residents affected by wildfires in the region.
“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,” she told Fox News Digital 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 called the wildfires a harsh lesson.
“It’s people coming together in your community and insisting on getting stuff done. And, sadly, this is a very, very, very harsh lesson,” she said.