Brad Penner-Imagn Images
A few days ago, former LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne took to TikTok and shared a story about how she was recently stopped from purchasing Babe Ruth’s former apartment in New York City. She claimed that she was all set to purchase the apartment with $1,595,000 in cash, but was surprisingly rejected.
Now, some neighbors in the area and others familiar with the situation are claiming that the 22-year-old may have stretched the truth. One person told the New York Post that it didn’t matter that Dunne was willing to pay cash on the spot for the apartment, because she would have been too “sparkly” for the neighborhood.
Another person who has worked in the building that contains Babe Ruth’s former apartment for a lengthy amount of time said, “I think she’s making a lot of stuff up to get people to feel sorry for her.”
The worker added, “Like, she said they were going to give her the keys. No, that’s not true. It doesn’t work like that. It’s extensive, she would actually have to go get interviewed. They would check her out first. She didn’t even do none of that. She had another probably six, seven weeks worth of interviewing and checking her finances and stuff like that. She didn’t even get that far.”
Others said that Olivia Dunne, who is the girlfriend of Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes, sharing a video on Instagram announcing that she “bought a nyc apt” also irritated members of the co-op board.
“She doesn’t belong here,” Monica Rosenberg, who has lived on the block for six years, told the Post, adding that Dunne would eventually become bored with the neighborhood and its surrounding community.
A New York real estate broker also questioned Dunne’s story, writing on social media, “There’s something fishy about this. You don’t get a board denial one week before going to pick up your keys. In fact, the board makes there [sic] decision well before a closing is even scheduled. There’s definitely more to this story.”
The worker in the building also pointed out that Olivia Dunne going public with her story about buying the apartment before she actually owned it, then being rejected, are “just making it worse for her” and could affect her ability to purchase property in other buildings in NYC. Dunne’s reps and the apartment’s real estate agent didn’t return requests for comment from the Post.