Diane Sawyer is saying goodbye to her longtime Martha’s Vineyard estate she purchased back in 1995 with her late husband, film director, Mike Nichols.
Known as the Chip Chop house, the veteran anchor told the Wall Street Journal she was parting ways with her beloved house because “the rhythms of summer have changed,” adding that her family has grown and “there is less free time for long visits to the island.”
“Five grandchildren have run through the halls, learned to swim in the warm waters, gathered moss in the forest,” she said. “At Thanksgiving, both enormous fireplaces in the great room give off warmth and golden light. We have always felt so lucky to be together in this magic place.”
Sawyer’s husband died in 2014 after suffering a heart attack at their Manhattan apartment.
Nichols was known for movies such as “The Graduate” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
“Mike fell in love with the Vineyard in the ‘60s and always remembered the day he visited Katharine Cornell at her home,” Sawyer explained in a statement. “He said it was the most beautiful house he’d ever seen and described the lustrous wood of the great room with its huge sliding doors. He remembered the path winding out over the dune to the beach, like an invitation to a perfect day. It always kept its hold on his imagination.”
Situated on 20 sprawling acres, the beach compound was built for legendary actress Cornell in the 1940s. Cornell would entertain luminaries such as Noel Coward, Eleanor Roosevelt and Laurence Olivier.
Sawyer and Nichols restored the home throughout the years using it as a place for large gatherings to host family and friends.
The estate features multiple homes with vast water frontage including almost half a mile of sandy beach on the Vineyard Sound, the listing notes.
Specifically, there are two private stretches of beach including 2,000 feet of the Vineyard Sound and 1,600 feet of beach on Lake Tashmoo.
Properties include a 3-bedroom main house, a 2-bedroom caretaker’s cottage and two modern beach cottages known as “The Shacks.”
Two additional detached bedroom suites known as the Pond Pavilion and the Ocean Pavilion are also on the Chip Chop estate.
Amenities include a swimming pool overlooking the beach and a Har Tru tennis court.
Mark Jenkins of Wallace and Co. Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing.
Sawyer has anchored news programs such as ABC World News Tonight, Good Morning America and ABC News 20/20.