Patricia Heaton at the 24th Critics Choice Awards in Santa Monica, California, US, January 13, 2019. © REUTERS/Danny Moloshok
(Nashville, TN) – Patricia Heaton is a rarity in Hollywood circles. She’s willing to criticize LA — the very city that counts itself as the epicenter of TV and film making. Heaton, of “Everybody Loves Raymond” fame, recently spoke out about her real life family’s decision to leave Los Angeles.
She spoke to Dave Rubin on “The Rubin Report” about the filming of her movie “Unexpected” in Oklahoma.
There’s a series of reasons for her departure, Heaton says. Crime, homelessness, high taxes, and decreasing work opportunities in LA when compared to other locations. “We had filmed (in) Oklahoma, and then we were filming something somewhere else, and it was outside of LA. And we just thought that the taxes are high. The crime is high. The homelessness is high, and we’re not working in LA as much as we’re working outside of LA. So, why don’t we leave?” Heaton went on to say familiarity with Nashville, Tennessee — and friends who live there — made the choice easy. “And so we just said, ‘Let’s go to Nashville because we were familiar with it.’ We had friends there and, you know, we really haven’t looked back,” Heaton explained.
It’s not a situation that brings Heaton any joy. Her sadness was clear in telling Rubin: “And when I go back now, I think, ‘Does it feel different to me because I’m not working here anymore or has it really changed?’ And I think there is a little bit of a sadness about it that I think is real, and it’s not just because of my experience.” Heaton says writers she worked with on “Raymond” and her other popular show “The Middle” have increasingly left LA in favor of their hometowns. Some have contacted her and praised her timing in leaving SoCal. The writer’s strike and COVID pandemic also took a toll: many studios and sound stages remain empty and unused.
The 2025 fires in and around Los Angeles also impacted Heaton’s decision to leave. She partnered with the LA Dream Center to help provide Angelenos with relief — while criticizing local officials for not being prepared. “I know some of the officials were saying, ‘Well, the system was overwhelmed.’ Well, in case of a huge fire, of course it’s going to be overwhelmed. You should know that and have been prepared for that. So, I think there’s a lot of money spent in LA, and we can’t figure out where it’s going,” Heaton told Rubin. “People (are) coming together in your community and insisting on getting stuff done. And, sadly, this is a very, very, very harsh lesson.”
California’s population declined by around 400,000 between 2020 and 2022, so Heaton is hardly alone in making a change. New York has experienced a similar decline, with many fleeing high taxes, crime, and increased costs — in favor of spots like Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, and the Carolinas.
