Since being the runner-up in the fifth American Idol, Katharine McPhee [b. March 25, 1984] hasn't had to look back, a mythical blessing that comes with her position in the competitive singing platform. Since breaking into the scene in 2006, she's received multiple music certifications, produced a number of Billboard charters, and amassed a massive net worth empire.
And considering her wedding to a wealthy, Grammy-rich musician, David Foster, she is already set for life. She does release music on occasion, but it's a mother's life for her hereon out. Amidst the backlashes for the difference in their age ever since they first started dating, the two are parents to a still-unnamed baby boy.
Take a gander at their private jet's turbine engine.
Photo Source: Katharine McPhee, Instagram
Katharine McPhee is surrounded by music through and through, possibly something that drew her to Foster. Either way, her mother and sister are both vocal coaches and even her father was in the TV business before his death in 2018. She had a former husband before Foster, Nick Cokas, who was one of the catalysts for her participation in American Idol.
Katharine McPhee-Foster's Net Worth and Income Source
Back in 2020, Katherine McPhee's net worth was estimated to be upwards of $14 million, as per Celebrity Net Worth. As a musician, she's released five studio albums, the first one reaching #2 on the Billboard 200 list, and brought home multiple awards, which is still shadowed by her husband's collection.
For twice in a row, she was named in the 10 Top-Earning American Idol Performers of the Year list by Forbes in January 2012 and 2013. She earned $1.1 million from May 2011 to May 2012 and a further $1 million from May 2012 to May 2013, all pre-tax incomes.
Music
As a runner-up in American Idol, she received deals with a number of record labels as a reward, a luxury compared to the rewards for the present-day finalists, the firsts of which were with Simon Fuller’s 19 Recordings Limited and Sony BMG’s RCA Records. It is important to note that Foster was one of the mentors for the Top 6 Week of American Idol S5. A year after leaving RCA Records in 2008, she signed with Verve Forecast Records and then with Columbia Records for the distribution of music from the musical drama Smash in 2011.
McPhee's collaborations in music include the legendary Andrea Bocelli (also one of the aforementioned mentors), Randy Jackson, Elliot Yamin (an American Idol S5 contestant as well), Jeremy Jordan, Jennifer Hudson, Megan Hilty (the three for Smash), trumpeter Chris Botti, Zachary Levi, and not to mention, her producer husband David Foster himself.
McPhee and Bocelli have made multiple music pieces together.
Photo Credit: Theo Wargo, Getty Images
The four studio albums she released were Katharine McPhee [2008], her first self-titled album that sold over 381,000 copies and had one gold-certified single, Unbroken [2010], Christmas Is the Time to Say I Love You [2010], Hysteria [2015], and I Fall in Love Too Easily [2017]. The collaborations mentioned above released two collections, The Music of Smash and Bombshell, for each of the two seasons of the show, which topped #1 and #3 on the Billboards list respectively.
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The 37-year-old performed in a number of musical theater acts and even got nominated for the Los Angeles Stage Ovation Award in the Lead Actress in a Musical category in 2005 for starring in Annie Get Your Gun. She was nominated in the Teen Choice Awards for three years ('06, '07, '11) but didn't win one. She did win other accolades though.
Movies & TV Shows
It is no secret that Katharine McPhee was already digging into the entertainment industry before even auditioning for American Idol. Before graduating from the Boston Conservatory in musical theatre, she went back home to Los Angeles to audition for TV pilots. She did feature in a mall-based MTV soap opera pilot, You Are Here, before graduation, which didn't air at all.
'The House Bunny' was the first major movie McPhee was a part of.
Photo Credit: Charles Eshelman/FilmMagic
Having participated in musicals since high school, she went into acting through the various musicals she did and was recognized for before American Idol. After single episode cameos in a couple of TV series in 2007, she featured in the movie The House Bunny starring Anna Faris in 2008, for which she also recorded a cover with the cast. It was a stepping stone, which was followed by a number of other major movie appearances like in You May Not Kiss the Bride [2011], In My Dreams [2014], and two upcoming projects.
For TV, she is notable for her roles in Smash and the crime drama, Scorpion. But her first feature was as a random one-off character in a Lonelygirl15 episode in 2007. For the fans, she also lent her voice in one particular episode of Family Guy Season 10 in 2012.
Endorsements
It's often an overlooked source of income for celebrities, but it forms a significant portion of their net worth. For McPhee, it obviously ran its course since the American Idol triumph.
Back in 2006, she became the first celebrity spokesperson for Sexy Hair Concepts’ hair-care line for two years. In 2008, she endorsed Neutrogena's anti-acne skin-care product line and filmed commercials for them. She even recorded a song for Japan Airlines called I Will Be There With You later that year.
Watch: Katharine McPhee Featuring in a Neutrogena Commercial
As an added bonus, she also likely earns quite a sum from social media endorsements, although paling in comparison to her music earns. She does possess a substantial number of followers of around 815,000 on Instagram.
Philanthropy and Charity
Over the years, McPhee has been involved in countless charity events and benefit shows, promoting awareness for various different causes. Quite literally. There are countless of them. She herself founded a charity called McPhee Outreach in 2006 to coalesce with other organizations in any charitable cause, going as far as to build a preschool in Burkina Faso with Global Compassion Services.
As for the comedic one, McPhee, Alysson Hannigan, Jaime King, Minka Kelly, and Emily Deschanel released a slumber party video in 2009 to promote breast cancer screenings for Stand Up to Cancer, taking a comedic approach to it.
In 2010, she met with a Boys and Girls Club and volunteered at a food bank in LA for hunger awareness in the US. She later toured the US for the same cause, partnering with Feeding America and ConAgra Foods Foundation. Later that year, she and a few American Idol alumni collaborated to remake the song We Are the World all to benefit the Haitians during the earthquake. She's taken part in plays and music concerts for benefits of similar kinds since then as well.
McPhee's performed in a number of benefit concerts since her 'American Idol' fame.
Photo Credit: Photo by Jeff Kravitz, FilmMagic
Again in 2010, McPhee was featured in St. Jude Children's Research Hospital’s video for their Thanks and Giving Campaign with her song, Lifetime, being played as the BGM. She'd also co-written Chelsea Field’s Love's Never Leavin’ all of whose proceeds went to the Tammany Humane Society. In late 2011, she became the spokesperson for Malaria No More to raise awareness against and eradicate Malaria.
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As a pair too, McPhee and Foster almost always attend charity and benefit events. The Canadian musician is no stranger to philanthropy and charity himself with his David Foster Foundation. Of course, they are also associated with the Andrea Bocelli Foundation and a dozen other charitable organizations.
David Foster's Net Worth Outshines McPhee's Over Ten-Fold
More than a musician/actor herself, Katharine McPhee is often searched as the wife of David Foster. The notable 35-year gap (almost) caught the attention of everyone in May 2017, and the fact that McPhee was born 14 years after the birth of Foster's first child in 1970 made it all the more viral. His kids approve of her by the way. Either way, the two went on to marry in June 2019, a year after their engagement. They now share a son born in late February 2021.
The pair's first meeting at the American Idol is the open book, and their common interests certainly appeal as the strength in their relationship. As for their net worth, McPhee's fortune doesn't even come close to Foster's. He is estimated to be worth over $150 million, a stark contrast to McPhee's $14 million. And he's got 16 Grammy wins to his name.
McPhee shared a throwback to their theater days in early 2019.
Photo Source: Katharine McPhee, Instagram
The pair are also quite close with the estranged royal couple of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as the latter went to the same high school at McPhee and did musical plays together. They host double dates quite often. And the news is that they were house-hunting in the royal couple's neighborhood, Montecito, CA, back in November 2020, amidst the full-blown pandemic and the US election.
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Katharine McPhee had dabbled in real estate in the past, having bought a 2,039-square-foot Toluca Lake home in 2015 for $1.4 million. She later listed it for sale in August 2017 for $1.5 million (originally for $1.549 million) before listing it for rent in October 2018 for $6,900 a month. To move out of it, she bought a 3,527-square-foot home in Studio City in August 2017 for $2.05 million.
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