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Why Is Alex McCord Moving to Australia?

Exclusive: the former RHONY star opens up about her family's big life change.

By Sabrina Ford Sep 17, 2014, 4:40 PM ET

During Alex McCord’s time on The Real Housewives of New York City, some of her costars may have acted as if her Brooklyn home was on a different continent than Manhattan. Wait until they hear this news!

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Alex, husband Simon van Kempen, and sons Francois and Johan are moving to Simon’s native Australia, the couple announced on social media Tuesday.

"And we're off," tweeted Simon, "…off to Australia to live!" He added, ”Our beautiful Brooklyn home went on the market this morning!” Simon included a link to the listing for the 6 bedroom, 5 bath townhouse in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill neighborhood with an asking price of $2,695,000.

He also shared an aerial shot of a lush coastline and captioned the pic, "Soon to be our new home town in Australia. Doesn't it look just a tad different than New York City?" The location, he told one Twitter follower, is about two hours south of Brisbane.

As for the couple's decision to move, Alex opened up to the Dish about going Down Under. Here's what she wrote us:

"After 18 years in New York for Alex, and 28 years outside Australia for Simon, we've made the decision to move to Australia to be with family. Over the last few years, all of Simon's family have reconvened from as far as Europe to all live within 20 minutes of each other on a collection of beautiful beaches on the north coast of New South Wales. We are the last of the family to move back, and it's time. Our children have never had the opportunity to live within walking distance of grandparents and cousins, and with our two boys aged 8 and 10 it's the perfect time for the extended family to enjoy each other. We both love New York City, and Brooklyn specifically, almost as much as each other; however, we've been there, done that and written the book—literally—on raising Little Kids in the Big City. It's now time for a new adventure."

"We both firmly believe that change is necessary in order to grow, and to do that, we need to get out of our comfort zone. When we realized that we'd quit traveling because New York was so comfortable and had everything we need, when we realized our 8 year old had only ever lived in one house—we realized it was time."

It feels like just yesterday Alex and Simon were giving us a tour of their Brooklyn digs. Check out the video below including a tour of Simon’s closet where he shows off those infamous red leather pants and vows, “I’m not wearing them again but I’m not throwing them out.”

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