As we enter the main foyer here in the main house at Neverland, this was a room where Michael Jackson would greet his closest friends and it was a room filled with artwork. These walls had huge paintings on them. >> Even now, 17 years after Michael Jackson’s musical passing, Neverland Ranch still doesn’t feel like a typical piece of land.
It’s like a memory that won’t go away. In an odd turn of events, it has returned to the conversation. Hollywood returned to film there, not because it was put on the market. The property was used as a filming location for the Michael biopic in 2024, bringing the ancient ranch back into the spotlight and reminding everyone that Neverland is still one of the most talked about properties in pop culture history.
>> Down the stairs. And here is the master bedroom. You have the kitchen here, which is absolutely huge, just a beautiful kitchen. Dining room and the other dining table was over here. Check out this. It goes virtually forever. In here? In here? And you can go and there’s a small door that goes this way into somewhere else, which is a very small place.
I think maybe I’m not sure what was in here. >> Today, after years of sharp deterioration, billionaire Ron Burkle purchased the property for $22 million in 2020 and it is now privately held and renamed Sycamore Valley Ranch. You can see how far the place has fallen from its peak just by looking at that figure. Jackson paid around $17 million for the ranch when he first purchased it in 1988 and he spent about $35 million transforming it into his own dream world, a place designed to simultaneously evoke childhood, spectacle, and retreat. Eventually, the
property gained notoriety for its 13,000 square foot French country house, lake, train station, movie theater, and amusement park style grounds. What began as a ranch in Santa Barbara County became into one of America’s most iconic private estates and one of the most emotionally charged. >> Off in another bedroom is this room, which is interesting because look, it’s a soundproof door.
Listen to the sound. It’s fantastic in here. And now we go to Disneyland, or what Michael recreated to look like Disneyland, the famous train station. Now inside the train station is quite remarkable. A huge bank of monitors and also probably pastries and things like that for people waiting to get on the train.
A fully functioning train station. >> This is due to the fact that Michael Jackson never saw Neverland as merely a house. It was a concept. Jackson chose the name in honor of Peter Pan’s Neverland, a paradise where a youngster never grows old. And that decision revealed nearly everything about his feelings toward the estate.
He believed he had lost his childhood and the ranch was his attempt to recover it. Because of this, the property ended up resembling a self-contained world with a Ferris wheel, petting zoo, rail system, and fantastical gardens that were intended to make it feel like something between a theme park and a dream, rather than a celebrity estate.
It wasn’t constructed to win over the the neighbors. It was constructed to generate an atmosphere that was distinct from any other place on Earth. >> Some depicting Michael Jackson in whimsical or magical situations. He also loved all kinds of art. There were statues everywhere. One of the statues that I was told was located right here was of a butler with a tray with cookies on it, so he would welcome people in that way.
At [snorts] the other end of the foyer down here, there was a huge clock, a two-sided marble clock that was so heavy that workers had to come here to Neverland Ranch and actually reinforce the floor here so that that clock would not fall through to the basement below. Now from the foyer, we can take a couple of steps down into the main living room.
This was filled with couches and chairs and rugs and in this corner here there was a grand piano. On the top of the grand piano there were dozens of photographs, framed photographs [music] of Michael and his family members and his friends and they would just line the entire top of the piano. >> And the specifics were absurd.
A 50-seat movie theater, a four-acre lake with a waterfall, a basketball court, a tennis court, guest houses, a barn, a firehouse, a carousel, and Disneyland-style gardens and landscaping surrounding the train station were all features of the ranch. During its peak, it also had a life-size train that traveled around the property and a petting zoo with chimpanzees, llamas, and other animals.
It is simple to forget how intricate Neverland was if all you know about it is from headlines. In the traditional sense, this was not a vanity project. Michael Jackson was attempting to create a universe that mirrored the one he hoped he might have had. >> Across the room over here, this was interesting.
Next to the fireplace that he loved to use when he was entertaining guests, there was a pedestal here. On top of the pedestal was an Academy Award statue, an Oscar from 1939’s Best Picture for Gone with the Wind. About 10 years ago, Michael paid $1.5 million for that Academy Award and he put it on a rotating pedestal so his guests could admire it.
Again, this was the living room and it leads us into the kitchen, which is a huge [snorts] kitchen. This is the size of Meredith’s kitchen. But this is an eat-in kitchen. He had a round table over there by the window. He would eat breakfast and lunch over there and then this is the main preparation kitchen area.
Of course, he had a lot of people working for him, people who cooked for him. They all wore uniforms. And if you look at the floors, they’re they’re beautiful in here. These were actually taken from an 18th-century French chateau. It was dismantled in France and then the pieces of it were shipped here to the United States and craftsmen meticulously put it back together.
As a matter of fact, some of those craftsmen occupied many of the rooms, the hotel rooms in this area for a couple of years. >> However, the fairytale was short-lived. Following his misconduct trial in 2005, Jackson left Neverland and never came back. The ranch was increasingly linked to legal pressure, controversy, and isolation following the 2003 police raid and the ensuing public scrutiny.
>> You guys need a uniform with you? >> How you doing? Sheriff’s Department, we have a search warrant. You have the manager here? >> Manager? >> Manager. >> Okay, I’m going to get a uniform for you guys. >> Okay. Who else is here? Just you? >> We need a radio and a mic. >> Okay, where do you want us to stay here? >> Wait, we need a radio and >> Okay.
Okay, everyone. Okay, I’ve got uh Did you guys saw the one camera leading over his place over there? >> Right. >> By the time Jackson passed away in 2009, Neverland had already evolved from a place of residence to a symbol, a location caught between fallout and myth. Long before he passed away, the ranch’s reputation was severely damaged by his personal issues, which is one of the reasons it’s still so hard to separate the estate’s history from Jackson’s.
>> Yeah, we do have some computers. Let’s let John get in and disconnect. This is not what you’re looking for. >> So, I’m looking for >> Excuse us. Sorry. >> The outside of the footage is all up on this. There should be a security house. Okay, let’s let Opie and those guys know that we may be looking for that.
Security on the last This is house. Security house. Security office is probably at the main gate. Well, the fireman is saying that they have an office which is where the security What’s her name? Violet? Violet? In my office, I just put a desk in my office yesterday. She’s the head of security. Where is Violet? >> Violet actually was on the phone when I was on the phone with her when the helicopter so I told her I think something’s going on and so I don’t know if she was heading in.
>> Once the property began to fall apart after he left, Jackson fell behind on a $24.5 million loan associated with the ranch in 2008. Additionally, Colony Capital eliminated several of its important assets upon his passing, such as the rides and petting zoo, the exclusive amusement park that had previously characterized bit by bit, Neverland started to vanish.
The enchantment did not suddenly disappear. It was taken apart. The ranch’s later years are so eerie because of this. It didn’t simply get older. Once one of the world’s most opulent private playgrounds, it was dismantled, rebuilt, and gradually transformed back into raw real estate. Additionally, some of the antique rides were removed from the property.
According to recent reports, the amusement attractions were sold and subsequently appeared at fairs in California, Oregon, and Washington. Some of the rides eventually found permanent homes at locations like Beach Bend Park in Coney Island. Because it conveys the entire Neverland tale in a single picture, that detail is almost too perfect.
What had been a part of Michael Jackson’s personal fantasy was dispersed, disassembled, and re-homed in fragments across the nation. Even the place’s magic ended up moving. >> Let’s go back to the beginning. When [snorts] you started working at Neverland, what was it like? >> It was a little bit It was It was a very different kind of job.
It It took me about a year and a half to even get used to it. It was a It was very different. >> When you were hired, what was the job description? >> When I got hired, I was told I would be a maid. >> And that entailed That entailed what? >> Uh a maid there, uh you would um >> [clears throat] >> clean up the house, you know, the main house.
Uh we had guest units that we would prepare for um the guests. There was a theater. Uh we would get the popcorn ready for that. Um ice cream just like the picture. >> Then in 2015, the property was initially advertised for a hundred million dollars. Burkle eventually purchased it in 2020 for 22 million dollars after the price fell to 67 million dollars and then 31 million dollars.
Because it demonstrates how much the estate had been diminished by time, neglect, and reputation, that transaction is among the most striking real estate tales connected to Michael Jackson’s legacy. The final cost was nearly unbelievable for a location that had previously been meticulously tailored. Even though it was more of a land banking decision than a trophy buy, it was nonetheless the conclusion of a protracted and widely reported breakdown.
Nevertheless, the property did not remain unaltered. By 2022, county officials were verifying that construction was taking place on the property, including obtaining licenses for electrical, roofing, and other modifications to already existing buildings. According to reports, the 2,700 acre property saw constant flow of activity as the current owner fulfilled his pledge to restore the estate’s remaining structures.
This is significant because it indicates that Neverland is no longer merely a deserted shell. Even though the public will probably never be able to see it up close, it is a private, strictly regulated property that is still being worked on. >> Now I’m entering really the private area of this home and stepping into Michael Jackson’s private master bedroom suite.
I just want to show you on the wall a security code panel so that Michael could push this to be to enter this area or anyone else who would have access to this area would push this. >> What makes the recent comeback even stranger is that Neverland has now been used by the film industry as a living set.
In 2024, filming permits showed that production on the Michael biopic included dialogue scenes, petting zoo work, and stunt filming on the property. SFGATE reported that Hollywood had descended on the ranch and given it new life for the movie. So, the ranch that once sat silent for years has now been pulled back into the spotlight by a movie about the man who built it.
But, that film connection also brought the ranch back into one of the biggest legal and creative controversies surrounding Michael Jackson story. The first version of the biopic was going to include a 1993 raid scene at Neverland, and some of that footage was actually filmed. Later, the production had to remove it after legal issues tied to Jackson’s settlement with the Chandler family made that material impossible to use.
So, Neverland ended up doing double duty. It was both a real filming location and the exact place where the movie had to stop telling the story. That is a [music] pretty remarkable twist for a property that already had one of the strangest histories in pop culture. That twist matters because Neverland [music] was always more than a backdrop.
It represented the part of Jackson’s life where fantasy, isolation, and control all collided. He built it as a retreat from the pressure of fame, but it eventually became a symbol of that same fame’s burden. It was a place that tried to preserve innocence while the world outside kept demanding answers, explanations, and access.
And that contradiction is why the ranch still captures people’s attention years later. It is not just a real estate story. It is a character study in property form. >> [music] >> The property’s physical size only adds to that feeling. Recent reporting calls it a 2,700 acre estate anchored by a large Normandy-style main house and surrounded by land that once held as many as 22 structures, including a zoo, amusement rides, and landscaping that literally spelled out the word Neverland.
That is the kind of scale that makes the ranch hard to think of as a normal house. Even now, when much of the original whimsy has been removed or altered, the sheer size of the property still makes it feel like an entire world rather than a residence. >> He had so much stuff that there was no more room, and he kept bringing more stuff.
>> [music] >> I didn’t know where to put it. >> What sort of stuff? >> Stuff like from overseas, just things that he liked to collect. >> [music] >> For his bedroom, just >> How big was this bedroom? >> His bedroom was very big. It was like the size of a home. It was the uh two-story. So, when you go into his bedroom, it was [clears throat] very huge, and then on one side there was a a walk-in closet and a stair a stairwell that would go up to a loft on the top.
So, there was another bed up there. On the other side, there was um another walk-in closet. Uh a big jacuzzi. So, it it was big. A lot of wood. The floors are all wood. >> And that world has changed a lot over time. Where there were once rides, there are now fewer traces of the original spectacle.
The private fantasy got broken apart and redistributed into pieces of public nostalgia. That is what happened to Neverland in the years after Jackson’s death. It was not simply abandoned. It was dismantled, reshaped, [music] sold, and slowly repurposed. What makes the ranch especially interesting in 2026 is that it sits at the intersection of [music] several different stories at once.
It is a celebrity home, a memorial of sorts, a legal symbol, a former theme park, [music] a filming location, and a property still being restored by a private owner who clearly sees long-term value in it. That combination is why it keeps showing up in articles, why fans still talk about it, and why new generations keep rediscovering it whenever a film or documentary brings Michael Jackson back into the cultural conversation.
It is also why Neverland remains such a haunting part of Jackson’s legacy, the place was built to be joyful, childlike, [music] and protective, but it became one of the most scrutinized private properties in modern celebrity history. Jackson used it to create a world that matched his imagination, and then the world turned it into evidence, rumor, [music] legend, and eventually a movie set.
That arc, from fantasy to fallout to partial restoration, is what gives Neverland its power even now. It is still Michael Jackson’s most visible attempt to turn a feeling into a place. >> to show you something that is really somewhat special and and interesting. If you look at these cabinets up here and then you open this cabinet here, you see another security panel, code panel here.
If you push the right code on that panel, it unlocks. Now, keep in mind, there would be clothing hanging here, so this would be covered. Triple locks on this wall here, and it reveals a secret section of this closet. I’m not sure what he kept in there, but clearly he didn’t want many people to know that it existed.
I’m going to come back out of the cedar closet here for a second, and then we go up the stairs into where Michael Jackson slept. This was the sleeping loft over here. The bed was against this wall. It was a huge bed, and and from what I understand from a friend of his who was here with me yesterday, the bedspread in this room was full sequins, just like many of the outfits that he wore.
>> And that is what makes this place so fascinating. Neverland is not just about Michael Jackson’s money, his fame, or even his controversies. It is about the dream he built to escape all three. It is about the fantasy of a childhood he felt he never got to have. It is about the way that fantasy grew so large that it became a landmark, and it is about how, even now, years after his death, and years after the property stopped operating as the wonderland he imagined, Neverland still manages to feel unfinished, still haunted, still alive,
still Michael. So, if you are looking at Neverland Ranch today, you are not looking at a simple mansion or a simple estate. You are looking at the remains of a private universe, one that once tried to turn pain into play and loneliness into spectacle. The rides [music] may be gone, the name may have changed, and the land may now belong to someone else, but the story is still there, written into every acre of it.
And that is why Neverland will probably keep coming back into the conversation every time his life does. It is still there, still enormous, still loaded with memory, and still capable of pulling attention whenever it reappears in the news. That may be the most Neverland thing about it, even now.
It refuses to stay out of the story. >> in concert. And of course, this was an area that was gone over by investigators investigating that allegation of sexual misconduct that resulted in a trial back in 2005. And it was after that trial that Michael Jackson never returned to Neverland. >> Lots of fans have carved messages into these rocks.
[music] This one says, “Thank you, Michael, for everything.” This one says, “Mexico will always love you.” I can’t [music] read all of them. A lot of them are faded. “MJ, thank you for everything. [music] Because it’s all for love.” “Happy birthday, Michael. We miss you.” >> So, what do you think about Neverland today? [music] Drop your thoughts in the comments.
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