Abandoned after the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. bin Laden family estate has found new life as a wedding venue. INSIDE EDITION has the details.
It's the perfect setting for a fairy tale wedding-a mansion that offers magnificent lakeside vistas.
Today, it's filled with joy and laughter, but two years ago it looked entirely different.
The windows were boarded up and shattered by vandals.
It had been on the market for 10 years but nobody wanted it, and there's a very good reason why: It belonged to the family of Osama bin Laden. They abandoned the house the day after 9/11—fleeing the United States, never to return.
Bin Laden's brother, Khalid, was seen at the Orlando airport on September 12th.
"I probably showed the mansion 50 times," said the real estate agent, Autumn Norris-Makin.
She said the 17-acre property was impossible to sell. No one would touch it, until this summer.
Dana English and her husband Gary are the proud new owners of the bin Laden mansion. And they're bringing it back to it's former glory.
Referring to the previous owners, Dana said, "That did not scare me at all."
The windows have been replaced and the stucco cleaned and painted. Inside, the ballroom is once again magestic. The walls have been painted throughout the house and the floors refinished. The estate has found new life as a wedding venue.
"It's s so nice seeing joy and happiness back in the house," said Dana.
The mansion has a romantic bridal suite. For blushing bride Katie West, it was the ideal setting for her wedding to Michael Thompson. The fun loving couple even set up a bouncy castle in the yard.
The dark shadow of the monstrous bin Laden legacy has finally been lifted.
