ANN KAPLAN AND STEPHEN MULHOLLAND

WELCOMING US TO THEIR MEDIEVAL CASTLE, CANADIAN STARS PLAN TV SHOW TO REVEAL REVAMP OF THE HISTORIC HOME

- EMILY HORAN

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW AND PHOTOS

When hunting for a new home, many people might consider downsizing, but Ann Kaplan Mulholland and her husband, Dr. Stephen Mulholland, did quite the opposite.

“We weren’t going to buy a castle, but it happened,” says Ann as she invites Hello! to join her behind the ornate doors of the pair’s new pad: the medieval Lympne Castle in Kent, U.K.

The Canadian TV star and entrepreneur, along with her world-renowned plastic surgeon husband, already own 10 residences in the world’s most sought-after destinations, from Hawaii to the British Virgin Islands, but even they didn’t expect to end up as king and queen of their own castle.

The couple, who starred in The Real Housewives of Toronto in 2017 and were previously based in Las Vegas, had been looking for a bolthole in Britain after the last of their eight children flew the nest.

“Our youngest son was 17 and went off to university. The next day, we said, ‘We’re out of here,’” recalls Ann, a businesswoman, author and public speaker. “When we started looking for flats in London, it got me curious. When an apartment is so expensive, I wondered what a house costs. Then it was, ‘I wonder what a castle costs?’”

FIT FOR A KING (AND QUEEN) 

Boasting turrets and fortified towers, a wood-panelled great hall and 20 bedrooms, the $19-million building is surrounded by beautiful stone-walled gardens, a vineyard, an orchard, stables and 139 acres of land. Its panoramic views take in Kent’s rolling countryside, the English Channel and, on a clear day, the French coast.