Where Is Beanie Babies Founder Ty Warner Now?
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H. Ty Warner, famed creator of Beanie Babies, has come under the spotlight recently with the release of The Beanie Bubble on Apple TV+. The film, which is semi-fictionalized and stars Zach Galifianakis as Warner, looks back on the Beanie Baby craze of the 1990s—when, at its peak, more than half of Americans owned one of the plush toys.
“I applaud the filmmakers for capturing the unprecedented energy and excitement—though not the facts—surrounding the original release of Beanie Babies 30 years ago,” Warner said in a press release. “The movie is, by its own admission, partly fiction. But, like the filmmakers, I am in the business of dreams, and I admire their creative spirit.”
Here’s a brief history of Warner’s wealth and success, and what he’s doing with it now.
Related: How Much Are Your Beanie Babies Really Worth?
How did Ty Warner get the idea for Beanie Babies?
Beanie Babies weren’t Warner’s first foray into the toy business. He landed a job as a representative at Dakin Toy Company in the 1970s—thanks to his dad, Hal, who already worked there—and held the position for a good 10 years. Harold Nizamian, Dakin’s CEO at the time, told Chicago Magazine that Warner was a “darn good salesman.”
His time at the company clearly injected Warner with some entrepreneurial spark. In 1980, he was fired for trying to sell his own products alongside Dakin’s. After losing the job, he went to Italy to visit friends, where he stumbled on a line of plush toy cats that were very different from what he’d been selling at Dakin. “I decided to come back and do something that no one has done,” Warner told People in a rare 1999 interview. “Make a good cat.”
He launched Ty Inc. in 1986 and began producing plush cats that were under-stuffed with little PVC pellets. “At first everyone told me I was cheap. They didn’t get it. The whole idea was it looked real because it moved,” he said.
The final piece of the puzzle fell into place at the 1993 World Toy Fair. Warner had changed his Beanie Babies from full-size cats to adorable palm-size animals of all kinds, and priced them under market at $5 apiece. They were an immediate hit.
What is Ty Warner’s net worth?
According to Forbes, Ty Warner’s current net worth sits at $5.7 billion, or No. 477 on the list of richest people in the world. An impressive feat, considering his highest all-time net worth was about $6 billion in 2002, when the Beanie Baby craze was alive and well.
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Where is Beanie Babies creator Ty Warner now?
Today, Warner is in his late 70s and resides in Oak Brook, Illinois. He's notoriously private, so not much is known about his personal life. But he continues to run Ty Inc.
Warner “retired” Beanie Babies back in 1999, to try to drive up their rarity and demand (spoiler alert: that was a massive fail), but his company has produced new lines in the years since. They recently announced the launch of a handful of redesigned “original” Beanie Babies for the toy’s 30th anniversary. These redesigns were also given away at U.S. and U.K. theaters showing The Beanie Bubble. “We’ve tried to capture all the magic again—30 years later,” Warner said in the press release.
Is Ty Warner married?
Warner has never married and has no children. However, in The Beanie Bubble viewers get a hint of his relationships with ex-girlfriends Patricia Roche (played by Elizabeth Banks) and Faith McGowan (played by Sarah Snook). Both women worked with Warner and were integral to the success of Beanie Babies.
The billionaire also dated ex-girlfriend Kathryn Zimmie for many years. She sued him for half of his $400 million Montecito estate in 2021 and accused him of physical abuse. Warner has denied the allegations.
Did Ty Warner commit tax fraud?
Ty Warner pleaded guilty to tax evasion in 2014, paying a $53 million civil penalty and around $27 million in back taxes, according to CNN. He did manage to avoid prison and spent just two years on probation.
He, like other wealthy Americans, had parked his money overseas to hide it from the IRS, stashing funds in a Swiss bank called UBS starting in 1996. By 2007, the account’s balance had grown to $107 million. Unfortunately for him, there was a big government crackdown on UBS the following year.
For his part, Warner admitted all wrongdoing and even cried in court. “There is no excuse for these actions,” he said. “I made a mistake. I am fully responsible. I am pleading guilty because I am guilty.”
What hotels does Ty Warner own?
Warner owns a string of luxury hotels, no doubt a savvy move in the 2000s as the Beanie Baby craze abruptly ended. His portfolio includes the Four Seasons Hotel in New York, the Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara, the Kona Village Resort in Hawaii, Las Ventanas al Paraiso resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, and the San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito, California. (The Montecito location hosted the weddings of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, and Chris Pratt and Katherine Schwarzenegger.)
As the New York Post reported, though, Warner has lost a ton of money from his hotel business. So much so that he went 12 years without having to pay federal income taxes because of the deductions he was able to take from his money-draining side hustles—no tax evasion necessary.
Among other issues, his two Four Seasons hotels have been closed for years, as Warner has allegedly refused to pay the large upkeep fees requested by management. Nonetheless, both spots are expected to reopen in fall 2024.
Is Ty still in business?
Ty Warner still runs Ty Inc., selling Beanie Babies to fans new and old alike. Along with his ownership of a handful of luxury hotels and resorts, he continues to be a businessman at 78 years old and commands an impressive net worth in the billions.
