Ree Drummond Net Worth (Money & Salary)

What is Ree Drummond’s net worth?

With a net worth of $50 million, Ree Drummond, an American blogger, author, food writer, photographer, television personality, and celebrity chef, is significantly wealthy. Her wealth is considerably amplified through her husband’s family, as Ladd Drummond belongs to one of America’s largest landowning families. The Drummonds rank as the 23rd largest landowners in the US, possessing over 400,000 acres of land. Based in a working ranch near Pawhuska, Oklahoma, Ree shares her life with her husband and four children. Since 2011, her show, “The Pioneer Woman,” has been featured on the Food Network.

Early Life

Born Ann Marie “Ree” Smith on January 6, 1969, in Oklahoma to William “Bill” Smith, an orthopedic surgeon, and Gerre Schwert Smith, Ree was raised in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, alongside her siblings—two brothers, Doug and Mike, and a sister, Betsy. The town, known for its oil industry, lies approximately 50 miles north of Tulsa, close to the Kansas border. Ree graduated from Bartlesville High School in 1987 before attending the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she was a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority. She completed her bachelor’s degree in gerontology in 1991 and returned home for the summer, intending to join her then-boyfriend in Chicago for law school, a plan that changed upon meeting Ladd Drummond at a bar.

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The Pioneer Woman

In 2006, Ree Drummond embarked on her blogging journey, focusing on home-schooling and providing step-by-step recipes with accompanying photographs. Her blog, initially titled Confessions of a Pioneer Woman and later renamed The Pioneer Woman, gained widespread acclaim, securing multiple awards including top distinctions at the Weblog Awards and the title of 2010’s Weblog of the Year. She also introduced the successful recipe platform, “TastyKitchen.com.” Additionally, Drummond has authored several best-selling books, among them her memoir From Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, which details her transition from Los Angeles to rural Oklahoma, peaking at #2 on the New York Times Bestseller List and rumored to be adapted into a film featuring Reese Witherspoon, although that never came to fruition. Other notable works include The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontier, Charlie and the Christmas Kitty, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays: 140 Step-by-Step Recipes for Simple, Scrumptious Celebrations, and Charlie and the New Baby. As of now, Drummond has penned 15 books.

Her blog has garnered mentions in prestigious publications such as the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and BusinessWeek. In 2009, Time Magazine recognized Drummond’s Confessions of a Pioneer Woman as one of the “25 Best Blogs” worldwide.

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In an episode of Throwdown! with Bobby Flay, Drummond made her television debut, challenging the celebrity chef in a Thanksgiving face-off. For this special event, Flay traveled to Ree’s Oklahoma ranch. The episode was broadcast on the Food Network in November 2010, and Drummond narrowly emerged victorious. A year after this competition, her show “The Pioneer Woman” premiered on the Food Network.

Late in 2016 saw the opening of The Merc, a restaurant retail shop situated in a century-old building in downtown Pawhuska, which the Drummonds purchased and began renovating in 2012. By April 2018, they had also launched a bed and breakfast called The Boarding House. Additionally, the Drummonds established P-Town Pizza and an ice cream shop named Charlie’s Sweet Shop in Pawhuska. Ree aimed for visitors to savor her small town as much as she does, offering tours of The Lodge, where she conducts her photoshoots and television appearances. Her website provides prospective visitors a variety of activities, including purchasing authentic cowboy boots at Osage Outfitters, strolling over a swinging wooden bridge dating back to 1926, exploring the Osage Nation Museum to learn about the local Native American tribe, and visiting the picturesque Tall Grass Prairie Preserve.

Personal Life

Ree met Ladd Drummond at a bar during the mid-1990s, and they tied the knot on September 21, 1996. In her writings and blog, she affectionately refers to him as “the Marlboro Man.” They honeymooned in Australia and currently reside on a ranch approximately eight miles west of Pawhuska, Oklahoma. Ladd is a fourth-generation member of a well-known cattle ranching family in Oklahoma and was already working as a cowboy when Ree first encountered him. He earned his degree from Arizona State University.

The couple has four children: Alex, Paige, Bryce, and Todd. Alex graduated from Texas A&M University, while Paige is a student at the University of Arkansas. The Drummonds chose to home-school their kids.

Real Estate

The Drummond family ranks as the 23rd largest landowner in the United States, owning an impressive 433,000 acres of land, spanning over 675 square miles. A government report indicates that over the past decade, the family has received more than $24 million in rental payments from the U.S. government, primarily to aid animal protection on their expansive property. They run the Drummond Land & Cattle Co, which was established by family patriarch Fred Drummond in the late 1800s after his immigration from Scotland. Government records reveal that the ownership of the Drummond company rests in the hands of only four individuals.

Drummond Land & Cattle Co. is a privately held family business with four owners generating an annual revenue of $2.5 million. Each year, the company also receives funding from the U.S. government’s Bureau of Land Management. They are allocated approximately $2 million annually to maintain the wild horses and burros on their land for their protection. Documentation indicates that since December 2006, the Bureau has paid the Drummond Land & Cattle Co. a total of $23.9 million.