Livvy Dunne took to social media this week to share her frustration after a co-op board unexpectedly denied her bid to buy Babe Ruth’s New York City apartment just days before she was set to get the keys.
The former LSU gymnast and Sports Illustrated swimsuit model said in a TikTok video posted Tuesday that she was “so upset” after her first real estate purchase fell through.
The 22-year-old social media sensation told her more than 8 million TikTok followers that she had decided, a few months ago, to buy an apartment in New York City.
“But the gag was, it was Babe Ruth’s apartment — so naturally, I’m telling everybody I’m excited,” she said.
@livvy
I’m just disappointed that’s all😭 #foryou #nyc #baseball #baberuth #apartment
♬ original sound – Olivia Dunne
The three-bedroom apartment, located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, is where the Yankees legend lived with his family from 1920 to 1940, according to House Beautiful. It hit the market in April for $1.59 million.
Dunne, who had decided to pay cash because she “wanted this apartment bad,” said she toured the place with her boyfriend, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes, and even hired an interior designer because bringing her college furniture “would be criminal,” she said.
However, just days before she was about to close on her dream apartment, she got a call saying that the co-op board had “denied” her.
“So pretty much [they] voted not have me live there, which is fine,” she said.
“For all I know, they could have been Alabama fans and I went to LSU,” she said. Or “maybe they didn’t want a public figure there.”
The New Jersey-born influencer, voted one of Time’s most influential creators of 2025, is not the first rich and famous celebrity whose dream of owning the perfect New York apartment was stopped in its tracks.
She joins an impressive list of A-listers that includes the Queen of Pop, Madonna; fashion designer and socialite Gloria Vanderbilt; former President Richard M. Nixon; Hollywood royalty Joan Crawford; and the elusive chanteuse and songbird supreme, Mariah Carey.
