Billionaire Tyler Perry is leaving Atlanta for Puerto Rico to slow down

American filmmaker and billionaire Tyler Perry says he will move to Puerto Rico at the start of 2027 and pull back sharply from the work pace that built his Atlanta studio empire, so he can spend more time with his 11-year-old son.

"Yep, moving to Puerto Rico at the top of the year, and I'm pulling back a whole lot," Perry, 57, told correspondent Justin Sylvester on NBC's "Today with Jenna & Sheinelle" on Monday, after Sylvester asked whether he would ever "chill out."

Perry said viewers were hearing the news first. Asked what prompted it, he pointed to his birthday, which fell the day before. "Getting older," he said. "It's time to slow down a little bit, enjoy more time with my son, and just take it all in."

A different pace for a famously busy mogul

Perry runs one of the busiest one-man operations in entertainment. He owns everything he makes, from stage plays to films to more than a dozen television series, and operates Tyler Perry Studios on a 330-acre former Army base in Atlanta. Forbes named him a billionaire in 2020 on the strength of that model.

The move would take him to a U.S. territory that offers deep tax breaks to new residents under its Act 60 incentive program, a policy that has drawn a steady stream of wealthy mainlanders in recent years. Perry did not mention taxes; he framed the decision entirely around family and age. He shares his son, Aman, with former partner Gelila Bekele, whom he dated from 2009 to 2020.

Marriage, he added, is off the table. "At this age, no, that's not a good idea for me. So no, won't be any marriage for me."

New film, public giving and unfinished business

The announcement landed days after Netflix released "Why Did I Get Married Again?", the third film in a franchise Perry started in 2007. Its characters are now in their 50s, and Perry has said their stage of life mirrors his own.

He has also kept up a run of public giving. Earlier this month he committed to clearing an $18,000 lien on the home of a Chicago-area woman displaced by a burst pipe, then added $25,000 for repairs. In July, an Alabama graduate said he had paid the balance of her Harvard tuition.

Still, the slowdown will not keep him out of court. Perry is defending two lawsuits from actors alleging sexual misconduct, claims he has strongly denied, and no findings have been made in either case. Entertainment Tonight reported that a deposition in one of them is scheduled for Dec. 9.

Whether the move changes the output of a studio that has kept several series in production at once for years is a question Perry left open.