The Hamptons estate Matt Lauer and his ex-wife, Annette Roque, took off Richard Gere’s hands for $36.5 million back in 2016 has resurfaced on the market. Lauer and Roque—who are pending the last phase of their divorce—are asking $44.8 million for the idyllic waterfront property.
Gere had been asking as much as $65 million for the historic property, which is known as Strongheart Manor. When Lauer and Roque approached him with their offer, he’d been trying to sell the place for about three years. At the time, Gere was coming to the end of his own romantic difficulties, as he and now ex-wife Carey Lowell were lodged in the throes of extended divorce proceedings that finalized only months after the sale.
Strongheart is a three-residence estate on just under 6.2 acres of land abutting Shelter Island Sound. The main house extends to 6,550 feet, and dates to 1902. The shingle-style residence boasts all the blue-blooded charm of its era, with an extended arbor flanking one side, a frame of mature trees, and a covered-porch entrance.
Within, the home features the urbane rusticity and casual elegance of the classic Hamptons living style. Soft blues and cottage design elements appear frequently, while glass and a rambling layout enhance the sense of luxuriant continuation so unique to these one-time summer homes of the very, very flush. The kitchen blends marble and cottage-style; periwinkle blue and a semi-octagonal ceiling design in tongue-and-groove dominates the bright, expressive room. The accommodations are all breezy, and carry the sense of dreamy idyll of the setting.
The main is one of three on the property, though, bringing the total interior living space on the property to 14,000 square feet. And the two guest cottages are substantial, too: one contains four bedrooms and three baths, the other two bedrooms and four baths. Filling out the estate are rolling lawns, lush gardens, a sports court, a detached gym, and a Gunite pool, and the 300’ of water frontage is punctuated by a 140’ dock.