Kate Winslet sounds desperate to escape the “house-of-horrors” Manhattan apartment she shared with Sam Mendes.
The Oscar-winning actress, who recently announced she and Mendes are divorcing after seven years, has told friends she wants to escape the $6 million Chelsea triplex which had been their home since 2005. Following their split, Mendes has reportedly been staying in his office in the same converted warehouse building when he’s in New York.
A source said told Page Six, “Kate really wants to leave the apartment. She sees it as a house of horrors because of the fights she and Sam had there. She feels it is tainted.”
But the British beauty, who’s famously superstitious and refused to fly with Mendes, fearing they’d leave their children orphans, has to stay put because she’s about to start filming a five-hour HBO miniseries, “Mildred Pierce” — based on the Depression-era novel by James M. Cain that also became a Joan Crawford screen classic.
Both Winslet and Mendes are keen to avoid an ugly court battle over their kids and their estimated $45 million fortune including the Chelsea apartment and a $9 million mansion in Britain’s Cotswolds.
The pair split after months of stormy arguments while making “Revolutionary Road,” in which Mendes directed Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. Sources tell us Winslet felt uncomfortable being directed by her husband, while their similarly intense approach to work led to more arguments.
Mendes has denied recent reports that his friendship with Rebecca Hall, a star of Woody Allen‘s hit film “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” was the reason behind the split.
A rep for Winslet — who was spotted last week on a break in Mexico with her children and friend Emma Thompson — didn’t get back to us.