‘Young and the Restless’ co-creators’ Malibu home sells for $18.3 million

The longtime Malibu Colony home of soap opera creator Lee Phillip Bell and her husband, William J. Bell, has sold for $18.275 million, records show.

The transaction is the second-highest recorded in the guard-gated beach community this year, records show. In February, action-film star Jason Statham sold his Malibu Colony home for $18.5 million.

Set on 60 feet of beachfront, the Cape Cod-style compound is one of just eight properties in the community with a private swimming pool. Built in 1928, the white-walled main house has three bedrooms, a living room with a fireplace and a large picture window centered on the ocean. A two-story guesthouse also lies elsewhere.

A brick patio and gardens sit between the home and the lagoon-style pool. At the far end of the property, decking overlooks the surf and has a staircase leading to the beach below.

Lee Phillip Bell, who died in February at 91, began her career as a broadcast journalist in her hometown of Chicago, where she later hosted and produced her Emmy-winning talk show. She and her husband, who died in 2005, co-created “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful.” The two daytime soap operas are among the most successful and enduring in television history.

The roughly one-third-acre property hit the market in April, amid stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus outbreak, for $21.5 million, records show.

The couple bought the compound in 1989 for $4.365 million. Another of the Bells’ homes, a 2.5-acre estate in Beverly Crest, is currently on the market for $39 million.

Rick Hilton, Jeff Hyland and Chad Rogers of Hilton & Hyland were the listing agents. David Findley of the Agency represented the buyer.