How Brooklyn Decker built real estate portfolio after quitting modelling

She shot to global fame on the cover of the 2010 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, then walked away from modelling at her peak.

These days, Brooklyn Decker has turned her back on a $US40m ($A60m) fortune to embrace being “unemployed.”

The 39-year-old star and her tennis legend husband, Andy Roddick, quietly amassed a multimillion-dollar real estate portfolio across the US while stepping away from the spotlight.

Their property collection includes a $US3.7m ($A5.5m) 15-acre Austin compound, where they custom-built a mega-mansion before selling it for $US4.65m ($A7m).

They also hold a New York City apartment purchased for $US1.1m ($A1.6m) and an estate in North Carolina.

The couple also held a lakefront mansion on a 1.8-acre Austin lot, which they listed for a whopping $US12.5m ($A18.8m) before pulling it off the market.

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Despite reaching the pinnacle of fame with modelling, Decker walked away from the industry at her financial peak, refusing to “stay in her lane”.

“I walked away from modelling and that was lucrative for me at the time,” Decker confessed to CNBC in 2016.

“I could’ve easily gone back to what was comfortable and what was a sure thing and what I knew would make me an income, and I didn’t. I chose to be kind of unemployed for a while.

“That was one of the things that I was most proud of, is having a piece of humble pie and staying the course.”

Decker revealed she secretly hated the job itself, despite enjoying the luxury travel opportunities.

“I wasn’t great when I was modelling, so I kind of left the second I could,” she admitted to Chelsea Lately in 2014.

Despite reaching the pinnacle of fame with modelling, Decker walked away from the industry at her financial peak, refusing to “stay in her lane”.

The former cover girl said she often struggled to look “elegant and elongated” and had a terrible strut.

“I never walked a runway because I was too klutzy,” she said. “I could never get through a runway casting. I mean, I couldn’t walk!”

She also slammed the brutal nature of the industry, contrasting its reliance on “trendiness” with merit-based acting work.

“It’s the one profession where, no matter how hard you work, if you’re not trendy, nothing’s happening for you,” Decker told The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2016.

“With acting, if you audition terribly, at least you know, ‘I messed that up. I was horrible. That’s why I didn’t get the job.’

“With modelling, it’s like, ‘I’m not cool this year, therefore I’m unemployed for a while.’ With modelling, it’s just, either you’re liked or you’re not.”

When Decker decided to pivot into acting, she faced immediate pushback from industry insiders.

“The worst advice would be when someone told me to stay in my lane,” Decker told ABC News in 2018.

“I was modelling and was going to make the very cliché transition into acting … but I think they had the best intentions in mind.”

“They were trying to encourage me to go after job security and they’re like, ‘You have a good thing going, why would you ruffle feathers, why make a detour career wise?’”

After stepping back from Hollywood, Decker co-founded the fashion app Finery, which was later acquired by Stitch Fix.

She also launched interior design and virtual-reality golf ventures with Roddick in North Carolina, where they raised their two children, Hank and Stevie.

Looking back, Decker urged younger women navigating fickle industries to embrace the power of stepping away.

“Say no. And don’t explain yourself. Just say no, and that’s OK,” she told the BUILD Series in 2018.

“If you get that weird feeling inside that says, ‘you know what, you don’t have to do this,’ you can walk away … You have a lot of power.”

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