Bakers Bay Celebrities

Bakers Bay, a golf and marina megadevelopment on Great Guana Cay in the Bahamas, has spent close to two decades becoming known for two very different things: the environmental damage inflicted on the coral reef, mangroves and coppice that once surrounded it, and its steady ability to attract celebrities to its exclusive, gated community.

Those two things are not unrelated. Bakers Bay is well known among Bahamians, scientists and conservationists for the environmental degradation it caused to the reef and surrounding marine habitat, and it has tended to attract the kind of celebrity who has little regard for that history — and, we'd argue, not always the best judgment generally. Bakers Bay attracts celebrities who often don't have the best morals, and a striking number of them have played out, or gotten caught, doing unfortunate things during their time there. We've made this argument for years, and the pattern has only kept building.

Here are some examples.

• Lance Armstrong, the cyclist and ringleader of one of the most sophisticated doping conspiracies in sports history, was one of the first celebrities publicly attached to Bakers Bay, tweeting photos of himself there in the months leading up to his 2012–2013 downfall. Some outlets reported at the time that Armstrong owned one of the development's original houses; we can't independently confirm that today, but his presence clearly helped sell Bakers Bay during exactly the years his own public image was quietly collapsing behind the scenes.
  
  
• Talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh, known for his extreme, racially-tinged commentary and his tirades against environmental regulation, filmed an episode of The Haney Project for the Golf Channel at Bakers Bay in 2010. Limbaugh was also investigated for illegally obtaining prescription painkillers through doctor-shopping. Few celebrities on this list fit their surroundings more naturally: a commentator openly hostile to environmental protection, enjoying a golf development whose environmental record was already being fiercely contested by the people who lived beside it.
  
  
• Ben Affleck's marriage crumbled during his stay at Bakers Bay in 2015, as it was reported that he had been cheating on his wife, Jennifer Garner.
  
  
• Television personality and businesswoman Martha Stewart shared photos of her time at Bakers Bay. Stewart was convicted in 2004 of obstruction of justice, conspiracy and making false statements to federal investigators, in connection with her sale of ImClone Systems stock.
  
  
• Jennifer Lawrence was photographed spitting out beer on a boat while staying at Bakers Bay; TMZ purchased and published the photos in early March 2016. The incident that followed is the more serious story — Bakers Bay security seized the vessel of, and harassed, an unrelated family of tourists who had been mistaken for paparazzi, according to a letter to the editor published in The Abaconian (details below).
  
  
• Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez vacationed together at Bakers Bay during their engagement. That engagement ended in 2021 amid widely reported accounts that Rodriguez had been unfaithful, allegations he denied but which were never followed by a reconciliation. Whatever the private truth of the split, the couple's glossy Bakers Bay coverage at the time shows how a celebrity relationship can help launder a controversial development's image — right up until the relationship itself falls apart.

None of this makes any single celebrity personally responsible for what has happened to the reef at Great Guana Cay. But the pattern is hard to ignore once enough examples accumulate: Bakers Bay isn't merely attracting famous people, it's disproportionately attracting famous people in the middle of, or on their way toward, some kind of scandal. A development that needed to launder its environmental reputation has found no shortage of celebrities willing to lend it their own.

There's a second pattern worth naming on its own, because it's a different kind of contradiction. Some of the celebrities linked to Bakers Bay have built real parts of their public identity around environmental advocacy — and visited, or bought into, the development anyway.

• Leonardo DiCaprio has been reported, in various accounts over the years, to have visited Bakers Bay. That's worth flagging because environmental protection is central to his public identity: the United Nations describes DiCaprio as a longtime environmental advocate whose foundation supports biodiversity, ocean and forest conservation and climate work, and he has served as a UN Messenger of Peace for climate change and on the boards of WWF, NRDC, Pristine Seas and Oceans 5. The United Nations' background on that work is here. We weren't able to independently confirm the specific circumstances of a Bakers Bay visit, and we'll update this entry if better sourcing turns up — but a celebrity who has spent years urging the world to protect fragile coastlines should, at minimum, be willing to answer questions about the luxury coastal developments he patronizes.
  
  
• Gisele Bündchen has also been associated with Bakers Bay, historically through her marriage to Tom Brady. Bündchen is a longtime United Nations Environment Programme Goodwill Ambassador; UNEP describes her environmental work on clean water and ecosystem protection, and has quoted her describing environmental damage as a global problem that requires global action. Her UNEP profile is here. That message applies as much to Bahamian mangroves and reef as it does to the ecosystems she more often talks about.
  
  
• Kendra Scott, the jewelry designer, has been named in real-estate and entertainment coverage as connected to Bakers Bay. Her company publicly markets itself around responsible sourcing, including recycled metals and lower-impact packaging. That doesn't make Scott personally responsible for Bakers Bay's environmental history, but it's a fair prompt: sustainability marketing shouldn't stop at the edge of a supply chain if it doesn't also inform where a company's founder chooses to vacation or invest.

Put the two patterns together and you get the fuller picture this page has always tried to draw. Bakers Bay's celebrity culture isn't just incidental star power — it's part of how the development sells itself. Some of the celebrities involved come with their own history of scandal and bad judgment. Others have spent years asking the public to take environmental responsibility seriously, then quietly made an exception for a development that a lot of people fought hard to stop. Different failures, same effect: a controversial megadevelopment gets to borrow somebody else's good name.

Local Bahamians have long believed that the right response is to contact the publicist of any celebrity seen at Bakers Bay directly. If the celebrity is one who has built a public identity around protecting the environment, ask whether they know the history of Great Guana Cay — the reef, the mangroves, and the residents and scientists who fought this development for years. If the celebrity has no particular environmental reputation to defend, it's still fair to ask why someone with that much cultural influence is comfortable being seen at a development with this history at all.

Yes! Here are a few of them:

• Sir Sean Connery is a founding member of Save the Bays, an organization set up to oppose what Connery calls 'unregulated development' at Clifton cay, Bakers Bay and Bimini Bay.
• Jean-Michel Cousteau, famed environmentalist, documentary filmmaker and son of Jacques Cousteau and famed environmentalists, urged Bakers Bay to consider responsible development.
• Kirtland K.B. Bodie, Bahamas' most popular recording musician, is an environmental activist who opposes Bakers Bay. In this video, K.B. urges Bahamians to rise up to fight environmental degradation at Bakers Bay and other well-known development issues.

There is no crime in photographing anything in the country of the Bahamas. It should be noted that there have been instances of Bahamian police and/or Bakers Bay private security overzealously harassing tourists and locals who they misidentified as paparazzi.

However, locals at Guana Cay want tourists to not feel threatened by these past issues, as it is illegal for Bahamian police or private security to intimidate tourists without cause or to confiscate camera equipment. Photographing people is not a crime in the country of the Bahamas, and nobody has a right to keep you from photographing on Great Guana Cay.

If you are carrying a camera in waters near Bakers Bay, consider the following:

• All beaches in the Bahamas are public up to the high-tide line. It is completely legal for you to walk, collect shells and photograph wildlife with a telephoto lens on any beach on Great Guana Cay, as long as you are below high tide line.
• Some of the best opportunities to photograph wildlife, particularly shorebirds, exist on 'Bakers Bay' beaches. Do not be shy about your right to continue to photograph in these areas.
• Be aware of past issues of harassment, and if possible, try to get video of this harassment if you are approached. Document everything.
• Use good moral judgment in photographing celebrities at Bakers Bay. Use your photos in a way that would make your mother proud, and never for profit. Whether a celebrity is one who talks environmentalism but vacations at Bakers Bay anyway, or simply one who's enjoying a controversial development without much thought at all, Notes from the Road encourages using photographs to engage the public about this issue.

Photographs of Jennifer Lawrence in a swimsuit, spitting out beer into the ocean, were purchased by TMZ and published on the web in early March 2016. Following this incident, police and/or private security at Bakers Bay appeared to be acting overzealously to keep another such incident from happening. During Lawrence's stay on the island, the following incident happened, as published in The Abaconian.

No light has been shed on the legality of this incident, but a look at the LinkedIn profile of the head of security at Bakers Bay might explain how both private security and Bahamian police were involved - they are one in the same. But how is it ethical for private security to act as a police officer? Doesn't the interests of one potentially conflict with the legality of the other?

And doesn't this LinkedIn profile show somebody who is ready for action? With all of the SWAT and counterterroism experience of the security staff at Bakers Bay, isn't it possible someone innocent is going to get hurt?

In other words, should Bakers Bay really be this aggressive at protecting celebrities from Bahamian locals and their guests who are legally enjoying the waters off this golf course development?

We're following the Jeffrey Soffer lawsuit regarding the helicopter crash at Bakers Bay. You can read the lawsuit here or follow the story at the Bakers Bay helicopter crash page.

For something along the lines of 10 years, an online community formed in Abaco and its out-islands, which include Guana Cay. But the forum has kept a strict policy of not allowing controversy or opinionated emails. The idea was to stay away from flames and for the community to concentrate on advice and good-natured banter.

But, the market of ideas demands free speech, and eventually an alternative to the original Abaco Board came about. At AbacoForum.com, anybody can join any conversation and free speech rights are fully protected.

Bakers Bay Club does not like the product of free speech; because Abaconians despise the megadevelopment, and naturally, negative press does them little good.

Here is the first post from a thread created by Dr. Ralph, the website's administrator of the forum:

Today we received this communication from one of our advertisers:

Effective immediately, please withdraw my banner ad from your site. I ignored the first complaint call that I received but I have just received another. I have never even read the entries on the Abaco Forum. However, to some people, they are upsetting enough that I have had to make this decision. Both the complainants are influential local residents (US transplants, NOT Bahamians) who's criticism of me, and my participation on the site, could be very damaging to my own business. I would appreciate a rebate of the balance of my payment, which can be mailed to the address below. I apologize for this. Thank you for your understanding.

One month ago a person who is associated with the Baker’s Bay Club contacted our advertiser and told her, “The Abaco Forum is organizing a boycott against Lance Armstrong (Mr. Armstrong allegedly made statements that supported the Baker’s Bay Club, in a commercial sense). A second person who is associated with BBC likewise admonished our client, and she has thus asked to have her ad terminated.

Since the inception of the Abaco Forum, we have allowed commentary that has been critical of Baker’s Bay Club, and its parent company, Discovery Land Corporation. On several occasions, we have noted that we are “neutral” on the controversy, and have solicited commentary from BBC/DLC supporters. We had hoped we would get rational, thoughtful responses: something from a biologist, an economist, someone with insight. Instead, BBC supporters have chosen to express themselves by intimidating our advertisers, presumably because they have they “nerve” to support a web site that allows negative commentary about BBC/DLC. Both myself and the other owners of the Abaco Forum LLC have received intimidating emails from these two individuals.

To the two of you, and we know who you are, as well as anyone else who is considering attacking our advertisers or us personally, we want you to know this: while you may coerce every one of our advertisers to pull their ads from the Abaco Forum, we will NOT roll over and prohibit our members from expressing themselves about this issue. We will NOT be intimidated, we are NOT going away, this is not like the other site that you have cowed into submission. You are unmasking yourselves: you are moneygrubbing, hypocritical, destructive hacks. You are unable to defend yourselves with honesty, reason, science, and logic. Instead, you pick on the weak and vulnerable, and to what end? Filling your pocketbooks, pure and simple. Shame, shame on you!!!

To our members: we will not allow this or any other strong-arm tactic to change our policy. Say what you have to say, do it right, do it proud, do it with class. But in the words of Don Henley, “ I will not lie down, I will not go quietly.” Neither will the Abaco Forum.

Based on real-estate and entertainment reporting over the years, the celebrities below have been named, with varying degrees of certainty, as owners or homeowners at Bakers Bay. Ownership at a private, gated development like this one is notoriously hard to verify independently, so treat anything below marked "reported" as exactly that — and not as a confirmed fact.

• Tom Brady — repeatedly reported as a homeowner at Bakers Bay, including in Forbes' coverage of the community. Forbes' report is here.
• Reese Witherspoon — reported in real-estate coverage as connected to Bakers Bay's homeowner set; we were unable to independently confirm current ownership.
• Nicole Kidman — reported in real-estate coverage as connected to Bakers Bay; unconfirmed independently.
• Kendra Scott — reported in real-estate coverage as connected to Bakers Bay; unconfirmed independently.
• Zac Brown — reported in real-estate coverage as connected to Bakers Bay; unconfirmed independently.
• Michael Jordan — long associated with the Bakers Bay celebrity set in entertainment and real-estate reporting.
• Lance Armstrong — reported by some outlets, around the time of his early association with the development, to own one of Bakers Bay's original houses.

• Leonardo DiCaprio — reported visitor.
• Gisele Bündchen — reported visitor, historically alongside Tom Brady.
• Kim Kardashian and Kanye West — vacationed at Bakers Bay for West's 40th birthday in 2017; Kardashian was later reported to be exploring a property purchase in the community in 2023.
• Pete Davidson — vacationed at Bakers Bay with Kardashian in 2022.
• Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber — Justin proposed to Hailey at Bakers Bay in July 2018. E! News reported the location.
• Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez — vacationed at Bakers Bay during their engagement.
• Rush Limbaugh — filmed a Golf Channel segment at Bakers Bay in 2010.
• Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner — stayed at Bakers Bay in 2015.
• Martha Stewart — shared photos from a Bakers Bay visit.
• Jennifer Lawrence — photographed during a 2016 Bakers Bay stay.

Bicyclist Lance Armstrong visited Bakers Bay Club in the development's early years. According to insiders at the time, Discovery Land Company hoped to recruit him as a kind of ambassador in its ongoing dispute with the native islanders who opposed the project.

Details of that arrangement remain sketchy, and there's no evidence Armstrong ever formally endorsed Discovery Land Company's megadevelopment.

Armstrong would never have risked his legacy for this — or so it seemed at the time. His willingness to be associated, even loosely, with Bakers Bay looks different in hindsight, once his own carefully manufactured public image collapsed under the weight of the doping conspiracy he had spent years denying.

Lance Armstrong can be reached through his publicist:

Publicist: Mark Higgins
Capital Sports & Entertainment
98 San Jacinto Blvd., Suite 430
Austin, TX 78701

This letter was written to Lance Armstrong.

Mr. Armstrong,

I have been an avid fan of yours for some time. However I have also been following the Guana Cay development struggle, which is why I'm writing this letter. I was very disappointed to hear that you recently were a guest of the Discovery Land Company.

The development on Guana Cay does nothing but promote deforestation, chemical runoff, and coral bleaching, not to mention the fact that it is hazardous to human health. I am a college student, and in research, I have interviewed several golf course employees, from spray technicians to people who monitor irrigation, about their health. They all reported symptoms such as rashes, fevers, and even vomiting blood, all associated with being exposed to the carcinogens dumped onto the golf course every day. Those men and women were all employed in the United States, who has much stricter laws then those in the Bahamas. The repercussions of exposure in the Bahamas is likely to be much worse because of weaker limits on the amount of pesticides used daily and also from the use of more harmful chemicals that are not legal in the U.S.

You have now seen the cleared trees and land. I can assure you, that Land was previously beautiful and undisturbed. The damage the developers have already done by clearing the trees has just gotten the ball rolling, promoting dangerous chemical runoff. The trees are no longer there to reduce soil moisture, and it is not only ugly, it also accelerates soil erosion and surface runoff. Please don't endorse the Guana development, it will only help the developers take more steps towards endangering the environment and human health.

Thanks for your time,

(Name Withheld)