Canadian chanteuse Avril Lavigne and her rocker husband, Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley, clearly have a love for Italian-style architecture. The couple, who honeymooned in picturesque Portofino, Italy last July, have snapped up a lavish new $9.5 million, 12,000-square-foot Bel Air mansion complete with Tuscan influences.
Appropriately enough, the 10-bathroom pad previously belonged to another rock 'n roll couple - Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker and his wife Shanna Moakler, who filmed their MTV reality show Meet The Barkers on the one-acre property. "She had to have it," said Avril's real estate broker Arnold Horland.
Avril, 22, and her husband bought the property after putting their Mediterranean-designed villa in Beverly Hills on the market for $6.9 million two weeks earlier. It is a big upgrade for the successful pair who could certainly begin thinking about starting a family now they have eight bedrooms to play with. The gated three-story home in the upscale LA neighbourhood also boasts an elevator, a 10-car garage and a spa.
Meanwhile, it is business as usual for Avril whose new album The Best Damn Thing hits stores this week. And it turns out that Deryck is not just a talented singer but also something of a photographer after she revealed he snapped her for the album's cover. "We just basically got in the car and went to the Valley and I got onto the sidewalk and he shot me," she said. "It's a really cool picture."