Ty Pennington is finest recognized for being helpful, humorous, and charming. With starring roles on reveals like TLC’s “Buying and selling Areas.” ABC’s “Excessive Makeover: Residence Version,” and HGTV’s “Rock the Block,” the tv host has amassed fairly a fan following all through his a long time within the enterprise. “I am unable to consider my quarter-hour of fame has become 15-20 years. I believe I am extremely fortunate,” he gushed to Folks in 2022.

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Nonetheless, Pennington’s devoted followers is likely to be shocked to be taught he is not fairly as squeaky clear as they thought. In reality, the tragic fact about Pennington is there is a shady facet to him that nobody talks about. He is likely to be one among America’s most well-known dwelling renovation consultants, however the TV handyman Pennington has a historical past of authorized hassle, and through the years, even his repute with a few of his HGTV followers has soured. Let’s get into it, we could?

In Might 2007, on the top of his “Excessive Makeover: Residence Version” success, Ty Pennington was arrested and charged with a DUI. As reported by ABC — the identical community that employed him on the time — he was arrested within the wee hours of the morning on Might 5, 2007. Pennington’s blood alcohol degree was effectively over the .08 authorized California restrict, coming in at a whopping .14. He was launched after paying a $5,000 bail. Afterward, he gave a press release by way of his publicist Stan Rosenfield. “I made an error in judgment. All of us make errors, nevertheless that is about accountability,” he stated within the assertion (by way of CBS Information). “By no means ought to anybody eat alcohol whereas driving. I might have jeopardized the lives of others, and I’m grateful there was no accident or hurt achieved to anybody. This was my wake-up name.” He additionally apologized to his followers, ABC, and his workforce for his “lapse in judgment and the embarrassment I’ve brought on.”

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In Pennington’s first interview following the DUI arrest, he made no excuses for his unhealthy conduct. When requested what he ought to’ve achieved in another way, Pennington instructed “Leisure Tonight” (by way of CBS Information) that he ought to’ve taken a cab. Pennington additionally famous how fortunate he was that his lapse in judgment did not price him his job with ABC. “I’d by no means wish to jeopardize that. I get to do one thing that lots of people by no means get to do of their lifetime and really get to make a distinction in individuals’s lives.” Ultimately, Pennington pleaded no contest and was sentenced to a few years probation and ordered to take a 90-day alcohol schooling class and go to a Moms In opposition to Drunk Drivers assembly, in response to CBS Information.

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Sadly, Ty Pennington’s DUI wasn’t his final brush with the regulation. In August 2007, mere months after his drunk driving incident, each Pennington and his then-girlfriend, Andrea Bock had been sued to the tune of $4 million. As reported by TMZ, The Jaxon Home artwork gallery proprietor Melissa Ross filed a lawsuit towards each Pennington and Bock claiming that they’d pushed her out of a furnishings line they created collectively by way of their joint firm, Jaxon, often known as Artwork Design Residence Decor (ADHD).

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Thankfully for Pennington, this authorized matter appeared a lot much less severe than his final. “Anybody with $320 can file a lawsuit — even a nuisance go well with like this one. This go well with has no benefit,” the house enchancment host’s rep instructed TMZ. In response to courtroom docs, by November of the identical 12 months, the lawsuit had been thrown out of courtroom. All’s effectively that ends effectively.

It is no secret that Ty Pennington’s time because the host of “Excessive Makeover: Residence Version” catapulted him to success and fame. Satirically, nevertheless, he additionally obtained a great deal of backlash and criticism for his time on the present. Beginning in 2007, there have been rumblings that the present and its mission to renovate houses for struggling households for gratis to them wasn’t all it was cracked as much as be. On the prime of the checklist was the monetary hardship positioned on the households after their houses went up in worth. Some even misplaced their houses once they could not pay the taxes. 

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Pennington was made to reply for the cruel realities of the contestants throughout an interview with The Wrap in 2018. “Sure, the property tax most likely went up just a little as a result of the worth of the home went up,” Pennington defined. “There’s a few tales that households misplaced their dwelling,” he confessed, earlier than including that ABC linked the households with a monetary adviser and basically positioned all of the blame on them. “If the household chooses to triple-mortgage their home to start out a enterprise that they’ve by no means achieved earlier than simply to see if they’ll get into it, that is their very own demise. That is the way you lose your private home, is you are like, ‘Oh, let’s use it as a lottery ticket and see what we will get out of it. And then you definately lose it as a result of you possibly can’t make the fee.'” As one can think about, individuals weren’t too happy with Pennington’s flippant perspective in regards to the households who misplaced their houses.

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