Visit Naomi Campbell’s opulent mansion in Kenya, where there’s only the silence and the crickets

Throughout her extraordinary 35-year career, supermodel and new mother Naomi Campbell has broken barriers, strutting down catwalks and appearing on countless magazine covers. Despite her busy schedule, she remains driven by her work and it still brings her joy. However, even icons need time off.

And when it’s time to truly disconnect, Campbell heads to her villa in Malindi, a tranquil coastal village in Kenya. She has spent more than 20 years using her stunning home, which overlooks the Indian Ocean, as her primary retreat from the hectic pace of her chosen New York City and her native London. It’s the epitome of indoor-outdoor living. Campbell is particularly inspired by the makuti thatched roofs and soaring cathedral ceilings made from sun-dried coconut palm leaves. For thousands of years, she asserts, makuti roofs, hand-stitched in intricate layers, have been a typical building material in East Africa.

“We’ve had this for at least 12 years,” she proudly exclaims, “and it’s still in good shape. Because of the air, the wind, and the salt, things here can deteriorate very quickly, but it’s held up very well and is practically a work of art,” the author notes.

Latika lamps from Morocco and Egypt, large and bright, hang from the rafters. Although Campbell enjoys shopping for furniture all over Africa, she has had the most success in Marrakech and Cairo.

Campbell doesn’t have to travel far to find great woodwork. “A lot of the wooden furniture we have in our house is made in Malindi,” she asserts. In fact, there’s a workshop in the back of the house.