‘Welcome to the Free State of Florida!’ Ron DeSantis’ wife cheers news
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Sylvester Stallone is packing his bags and ditching California for a new life in the Sunshine State.
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The Rocky icon announced he’s “permanently” leaving California for Florida in the Season 2 premiere of The Family Stallone, streaming on Paramount+.
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“After long, hard consideration, your mother and I have decided, time to move on and leave the state of California permanently, and we’re going to go to Florida,” Stallone, 77, told his three daughters: Scarlet, 21, Sistine, 25, and Sophia, 27.
“We’re gonna sell this house. We already have the place, it’s a done deal,” he added.
“I needed a big change, and Sly went along with it,” Stallone’s wife, Jennifer Flavin, admits in a confessional moment. “It’s an empty nest. I need to change it up.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ wife, Casey, cheered the news on X, sharing a clip from the reality series.
“Welcome to the Free State of Florida!” she wrote. “In addition to respecting and protecting your God-given, constitutional right to be free, you can also buy toothpaste without having an armed guard in CVS unlock it for you.”
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Stallone tells viewers that the move was initiated by Flavin, whom he married in 1997, after the pair hit a rough patch in 2022. Flavin filed for divorce from the actor before the couple eventually reconciled.
“We have a lot of roots in California, so it’s not an easy transition to Florida,” he said. “But Jennifer really had her heart set on it. I gave in.”
Later in the episode, Stallone chatted about his decision with his Lords of Flatbush co-stars Jon Lovitz and Henry Winkler.
“The thing is, I don’t want to shake things up, but I know my wife wants big adventure,” he said.
Stallone and Flavin, 55, bought the spacious pad in the north end of Palm Beach in December 2020.
According to the Palm Beach Daily News, the Stallones’ Caribbean-style home in Palm Beach sits on over an acre of land and includes outdoor loggias, a swimming pool, a whirlpool spa and a sandy beach, all facing 254 feet of frontage on the Intracoastal Waterway.
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With their home in Palm Beach, the Stallones join other celebrities with residences in the area, including Jon Bon Jovi, Rod Stewart, shock jock Howard Stern and former president Donald Trump.
Flavin spoke with Fox News Digital in December about the couple’s relocation, calling it, “an incredible move.”
“I was born and raised there, two of our kids were born there, but now everyone’s out, our daughters moved to the East Coast … so there wasn’t really anything left for me in California,” she said. “A few of our best friends also moved, so I think it’s [a] good change, just making new friends, living a totally different lifestyle, I love it, I’m really happy.”
She added, “I just needed a change. I felt like I’ve been there long enough, and life is short, so I wanted to make a change and not just be sitting in one house the rest of my life.”
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Flavin also said she the shift wasn’t spurred by California’s crime rates, which celebrities like Scott Baio have aired concerns about.
“There’s crime everywhere, there’s crime in Florida, too, so I didn’t move because of crime. You can find it anywhere you look, even in small towns,” she said.
Meanwhile, Stallone predicted the move would help keep his creative juices flowing.
“I wasn’t moving because, ‘Oh, wow, I wanted another beautiful view.’ Any time changing that paradigm which you become used to, it’s literally to jump-start that process again,” he explained in his Sly documentary that hit Netflix last year.
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