@travelwithnoon: In 1978 a 28 year old offered $100,000 for a $6 million island to impress a girl. The realtor flew off and left them to hitch-hike home. Today that island rents for over $100,000 a night. The man was Richard Branson, the girl was Joan Templeman, and the island was Necker, in the British Virgin Islands. A year after the helicopter left without them, the owner, an English viscount desperate to sell, took $180,000, on one condition from the government: build a resort within four years or hand it back. Branson spent roughly $10 million on a Balinese great house on the hill and married Joan there in 1989. In 2011 lightning burned the house to the ground at 4 a.m. with twenty guests inside, Kate Winslet among them. Everyone got out. He rebuilt. Hurricane Irma flattened the island in 2017 and he rebuilt again. The Obamas went there the week they left the White House. Joan died last November. Fifty years together, in his words. And the whole island still rents for over $100,000 a night, to the man who couldn't afford it. Share this with the person you'd buy an island for. Follow for the untold stories behind the world's most iconic places, and save this for the day you can. Photos of Richard Branson: David Shankbone (CC BY 3.0) and Chatham House (CC BY 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons. #RichardBranson #NeckerIsland #PrivateIsland #BVI #LuxuryTravel

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Thursday 10 September 2026 21:22:50 GMT