This Ain’t No Joke: How Bill Cosby Went from $400M to Foreclosures, Lawsuits, and a $29M Mansion He Can’t Keep

Bill Cosby’s real estate troubles are piling up on the Upper East Side, where two of his Manhattan townhouses have reportedly landed in foreclosure, according to The New York Post. The disgraced 88-year-old comedian and his wife Camille have just listed their longtime home, the historic Luyster Mansion, at 18 East 71st Street with a $29 million asking price, according to Realtor.com.

Money Troubles?

The sale follows months of financial setbacks. Court filings reveal the couple defaulted on $17.5 million in loans connected to their New York properties, forcing both residences onto the market.

Cosby, once one of America’s highest-paid entertainers, now faces the reality of parting ways with prime Manhattan real estate that once symbolized his success. Still, the glossy new listing avoids any mention of his ownership, highlighting only the mansion’s architectural pedigree and location.

Along with the 71st Street address, Cosby has also put his East 61st Street townhouse up for sale, further signaling the depth of his financial unraveling.

The townhouse at 243 East 61st Street, part of the Treadwell Farm Historic District and once home to Cosby, his wife, Camille, and their late son Ennis, was originally listed for $7 million. After sitting without offers, the price was cut by $250,000 to $6.75 million.

While a $29 million sale of the Luyster Mansion would more than cover his nearly $18 million debt, Cosby’s legal team argues that the figures in CitiMortgage’s foreclosure action against the LLC that owns the East 61st Street property may have been exaggerated.

Comparing the two Lenox Hill properties is night and day. The 71st Street mansion sits just off Central Park in the high-end stretch of Lenox Hill known for its Gilded Age mansions, Realtor reported.

The 13,000-square-foot residence, which Cosby bought in 1987 for $6.2 million, was built by John Duncan of Grant’s Tomb fame in 1899 in a neo-French Classic style and features 11 fireplaces, a mahogany elevator, a roof terrace, and grand interiors.

The mansion is also noted to be within walking distance of fellow disgraced convicted sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein’s former townhouse, which sold in 2021 for $51 million, as the Post reported.

The East 61st Street property, by contrast, is a more modest 5,000-square-foot, six-bedroom townhouse purchased in 1980. It is considerably more homey, though now weighed down by foreclosure proceedings.

Cosby’s fall from grace has seen the man once celebrated as “America’s Dad” go from the highest-paid television actor in America, earning tens of millions annually from “The Cosby Show” and other projects, to his current financial straits.

Once estimated at $400 million, Cosby’s fortune has steadily declined. The resurgence of decades-old sexual assault allegations in 2014 all but ended his career, followed by a 2018 conviction. He was convicted of three counts of aggravated indecent assault in 2018 for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004. His conviction and prison sentence were overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2021 due to a violation of due process. Still, lawsuits, tax liens, and foreclosure battles have chipped away at what remains of his wealth.