Rush Limbaugh’s widow Kathryn is set to inherit the $51million Palm Beach property he called his permanent home after quitting New York City in 2010, according to reports.
Limbaugh, who died on Wednesday aged 70 after a year-long battle with lung cancer, first picked up the estate as a vacation home in 1998 for only $3.98million, Fox Business reports.
According to a recent estimate on Zillow, the property is now worth almost 13 times as much after he and his 44-year-old wife transformed the property when they decided to relocate for good.
The couple added three additional structures to the house, originally built in 1992, after buying up surrounding land.
Limbaugh also relocated his business and radio show to Florida, which he hosted just a mile away from the house, and he was located close to friend President Donald Trump whose Mar a Lago estate is along the same eight-mile Palm Beach stretch.
The $51million Palm Beach property where Rush Limbaugh lived since 2010
Reports say widow Kathryn will inherit the home after his death Wednesday. They are pictured together in February 2020 after Limbaugh received the Presidential Medal of Freedom
The main house has seven bedrooms, 12 baths and a private elevator, as well as a two-storey library.
On the grounds, there is a pool, a putting green, and a private beach on part of the estate’s two acres along the oceanfront.
As well as the main home, there are four guest houses and a 24-hour guard station.
It was believed the home had been targeted in 2012 when the bomb squad was sent in to examine a suspicious package. It was found not to be hazardous.
The radio host had initially left Florida for NYC in 1988 to build his career but abandoned the Big Apple again just over two decades later after the city enacted a tax hike.
Limbaugh had owned a Fifth Avenue condo with 10 rooms and a view of Central Park while he lived in Manhattan, which he sold for $11.5million.
The host was worth a cool $600million around the time of his death after earning an estimated $33million a year for much of his career.
He was the second highest-paid radio host in 2019 just behind Howard Stern.
In January 2020, just before he announced his cancer diagnosis, Limbaugh renewed a contract with Premiere Radio Networks for $70million annually.
In April last year, Forbes ranked him as the 11th highest earning celebrity of the year. He was estimated to be receiving $85million a year at the time.
The publication said that he first ranked among the world’s highest-paid entertainers in 1994 at No. 36 with pretax earnings of $25 million.
Limbaigh first bought the house, pictured, for $3.98million in 1992
The couple moved their permanently in 2010 after NYC increased its taxes
The estate, pictured, includes four guest houses, a putting green and a private beach
Forbes also estimates that his career-long pre-tax earnings looked close to $1.1billion before his personal spending and professional costs.
The Rush Limbaugh Show was broadcast across more than 650 radio stations on Premiere Radio Networks and attracted 15 million listeners.
As well as his radio earnings, Limbaugh added to his massive fortune by streaming videos of his radio show for a fee and publishing seven books, including a five-title children’s series “Rush Revere’ he wrote with wife Kathryn.
They also included New York Times best sellers, The Way Things Ought to Be and See, I Told You So.
In 2008, Forbes named Limbaugh among their most generous celebrities after he donated $4.2 million in the previous year to the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation.
His annual Cure-A-Thon broadcast has raised more than $47 million over the years to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of America, according to the website FoundationGuide.org.
Rush Limbaugh with fourth wife, Kathryn Rogers, at the Andrea Bocelli concert at The Mar-a-Lago Club on February 28, 2010 in Palm Beach, Florida. She announced his death Wednesday
The day after revealing he had cancer, Limbaugh was invited by President Trump to attend his State of the Union where he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He is pictured alongside his wife Kathryn and First Lady Melania Trump as the speech
His family shared a tribute to him on Facebook on Wednesday soon after his death was first announced by his fourth wife, Kathryn, on his radio show, as pictured above
It is not known if any of Limbaugh’s three ex-wives will receive any of his fortune or if Kathryn, his wife of 11 years, will inherit his full estate.
Limbaugh had no children.
Rush Limbaugh in his senior year book from Central High School in Cape Girardeau, 1969
Kathryn had announced her husband’s death on Wednesday on his radio show, which he first began in 1988, stating, ‘I am most certainly not the Limbaugh that you tuned in to listen to today’.
‘I, like you, very much wish Rush was behind this golden microphone right now, welcoming you to another exceptional three hours of broadcasting,’ she told shocked listeners.
‘For over 32 years, Rush has cherished you, loyal audience, and always looked forward to every single show. It is with profound sadness I must share with you directly that our beloved Rush, my wonderful husband, passed away this morning due to complications from lung cancer.’
Limbaugh recently told President Trump that he was ‘married to an angel’.
‘Every time I spoke to him, he would tell me how great she was,’ Trump told Fox Wednesday during his first post-White House interview after he dialed into the network on hearing of his friend’s death.
‘She took such great care. He was very brave — I mean he in theory could have been done four months ago, really. He just, he was fighting ’til the very end. He was a fighter,’ he added.
The couple had married in 2010 at a lavish ceremony that included a performance from Elton John.
Limbaugh was more than 20 years Kathryn’s senior and had met her while he was still married to his third wife.
She is a direct descendant of former President John Adams
His first marriage was 1977 to Roxy Maxine McNeely, who he met while the pair worked at WHB, a radio station in Kansas City, Missouri. She was a sales secretary.
In a 1993 interview with The Seattle Times, she recalled how it was simply ‘over one day’, a year into the marriage.
‘We just sat down one day and decided our marriage was over. It was mutual, nothing ugly,’ she said.
‘I don’t see him married with kids. He devotes so much time and energy to what he does that there’s nothing left for anyone else. Hindsight is always clearer, but I just don’t think he has the energy for a relationship.
‘We were just getting started, two people that ended up together.
‘Now, looking back, I think he was happier on his own. Relationships are hard for Rush. People are hard,’ she said.
Rush Limbaugh at his studio at WABC Radio in New York City on December 14, 1988 (left) He later moved the show to Florida, where he was most popular, and right, in the 1990s
Limbaugh married Kathryn Rogers in a lavish ceremony in 2010. Pictured in 2008
Limbugh married Michelle Sixta (left) in 1983, but they divorced in 1990. He was married to third wife Marta (pictured together, right) between 1994 and 2004
But he moved on with Michelle Sixta. The pair married in 1983. She was a student when they met, and he had already started making a name for himself in Sacramento.
The pair stayed together until 1988 when, after moving to New York together, they split and divorced in 1990.
Among the reasons given was that she was active and social, preferring being outside than at home, where Rush reveled in air conditioning in front of his computer.
Rush didn’t marry again until 1994, when he married aerobics instructor Marta Fitzgerald.
They were together until 2004.
He died the know with Kathryn in 2010 and she stayed by his side during his cancer diagnosis.
She was standing beside him as he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom during Trump’s final State of the Union just a day after he had announced his illness on his radio show.
Limbaugh died in his Palm Beach home Wednesday due to lung cancer.