HGTV is understood for offering healthful dwelling design, adorning, and renovation content material that the entire household can take pleasure in and even aspire to. And its stars are anticipated to mimic that very same branding. Assume: squeaky clear husband and spouse duos Chip and Joanna Gaines and Ben and Erin Napier. “We have actually taken a leap with our storytelling to be extra reflective of that. It isn’t simply concerning the bricks and mortar. It is actually concerning the life that is lived in a house,” HGTV’s then-president Kathleen Finch advised Selection in 2014 concerning the deliberate option to hone in on the lives of the community’s expertise, opting to present viewers extra than simply educational how-tos.

Sadly, the trusty dwelling and backyard tv channel’s determination to lean into its star energy has backfired in some circumstances, resulting in a few of the most important HGTV scandals ever. A few of HGTV’s actuality stars are additionally nothing like they appear, weighed down by scandalous rumors we simply cannot ignore. Let’s get into it!

Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater?! Comic and tv host Ellen DeGeneres debuted her model new present “Ellen’s Design Problem” on HGTV in 2015 to a lot fanfare. The fact competitors sequence whereby furnishings designers went face to face to compete for chilly exhausting money proved to be a hit. Alas, one winner particularly shortly went from hero to zero following a severe dishonest allegation.

Through the finale episode, DeGeneres declared that contestant Tim McClellan had gained the competitors with a wooden and metal desk comprised of many modern, hidden drawers. One week later, nevertheless, somebody introduced it to DeGeneres’ consideration that McClellan’s design was eerily just like that of one other desk created by European designer Simon Schacht. Ruh roh. In the long run, DeGeneres disqualified McClellan and named runner-up contestant Katie Stout because the winner. 

It needs to be famous, nevertheless, that McClellan vehemently denied that he deliberately copied his design from Schacht, even occurring “The Ellen DeGeneres Present” to inform his aspect of the story. “I’ve by no means heard of Simon — I am unsure of his final title,” he advised DeGeneres. “And in my recollection, I’ve by no means seen his piece of furnishings earlier than.” Nonetheless, he agreed that disqualifying him was the correct determination. “I perceive the choice made and settle for it and acknowledge Katie because the reputable winner.”

Viewers first met HGTV golden couple Tarek El Moussa and Christina Haack manner again in 2013. Nevertheless, it wasn’t too lengthy after the debut of their profitable “Flip or Flop” sequence that the deep cracks of their seemingly good marriage started to floor. TMZ reported that police had been despatched to the couple’s dwelling in Might 2016 following “a name of a presumably suicidal male with a gun.” Witnesses advised the tabloid information group that El Moussa took a gun from his secure after which fled on foot to a close-by mountain climbing path.

In December of the identical yr, the couple finally addressed the incident in a joint assertion saying their separation. “We had an unlucky misunderstanding about six months in the past, and the police had been known as to our home in an abundance of warning,” they wrote, per Us Weekly. “There was no violence, and no expenses had been filed. We selected to get counseling to type out our relationship. Collectively, we’ve determined to separate whereas we reevaluate the way forward for our marriage.”

El Moussa additional elaborated on the scandalous rumor within the confines of his 2024 ebook “Flip Your Life.” In response to the HGTV star, he took the gun as a way of safety from the wildlife within the space following a verbal dispute together with his then-wife, Haack. “That was the final time we had been collectively as a household: with Christina strolling down the driveway, crying, and me sitting there in handcuffs, asking myself, ‘What on the earth is occurring?'” he penned.

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Even “House City” star Ben Napier was embroiled in a scandal that rocked his repute. It began in February 2020, when a mixture of 38 folks and corporations had been sued civilly by The Mississippi Division of Human Providers. The state company alleged that they’d improperly used welfare funds to fatten their very own wallets. Shockingly, Brett Favre was amongst these being accused of committing such a heinous act. Within the confines of the lawsuit obtained by Mississippi As we speak, Favre was accused of diverting funds from the Momentary Help to Needy Households program and utilizing them construct a state-of-the-art volleyball facility on the College of Southern Mississippi — the identical establishment his personal daughter performed collegiate volleyball at. Speak about a tragic fall from grace. 

Sadly, shortly after, squeaky clear Ben was additionally dragged into the mess when it was revealed that he type of, sort of helped Favre in his quest for customized lockers for the brand new fancy schmancy volleyball facility. Investigative journalist Anna Wolfe tweeted that it was Ben who “assisted with” the development of stated lockers. Ben’s spouse, Erin Napier, shortly set the file straight in a since-deleted tweet (by way of EntertainmentNow) clarifying that Ben didn’t construct the lockers. In response to Erin, her well-known husband merely “provided a advice for a cupboard maker” the couple labored with. Phew.