What Did Bette Midler Do With The 1400 Acres Of Property She Bought In Hawaii?
by Andy Hall.
September 17, 2026.
Bette Midler has one of the longest careers in show business. She is an actress, singer, and comedian. She has shown that she can turn her hand to almost anything. Now aged 80, she has won three Grammys, three Emmys, two Tonys, and received two Oscar nominations. Additionally, she remains busy with new projects. Recent projects include roles in Jocelyn Moorhouse’s comedy The Fabulous Four. They also include Jonah Hill’s Cut Off with Kristen Wiig and Nathan Lane.
Off the stage, Bette Midler’s other big passion is environmental conservation.
Moreover, when it comes to looking after nature, her Hawaii home is particularly close to her heart.
At the turn of the new millennium, the Honolulu-born actress made a significant investment.
She bought up 1,400 acres of a sugarcane plantation in Kaua‘i—the fourth largest Hawaiian island.
Midler owns several landholdings on the Garden Isle – including a 38-acre property ‘Laguna Beach which she bought for $150,000 in 1986. Under Hawaiian law, the actress owns the land indefinitely – a Fee Simple estate which she is entitled to lease out if she wants.
A safe haven for Hawaii’s wildlife
And that is exactly what she did. In 2002, plans were made to convert 100 acres of her Kapa’a landholding into a wildlife reserve – a wetland habitat for endangered waterbirds. The land would be leased in perpetuity, but Midler would effectively give up the right to put the land to other uses.
More recently, Bette has cashed in on one of the many parcels she owns on Kaua‘i. A 1.34-acre plot was sold to a partner of Discovery Land Co. for $1.85 million in early 2020. She also sold her Laguna Beach retreat to move to a luxury penthouse in Manhattan with her husband, the performance artist Martin von Haselberg.
