HGTV has canceled “Rehab Addict” after a video surfaced showing the show’s star, Nicole Curtis, using a racial slur. The Michigan native has since posted an apology, saying the footage was “stolen, then manipulated.”
Curtis, 49, who is from Lake Orion, had been hosting the show for the last 15 years. The show followed her as she renovated historic homes in Michigan and Minnesota. The video emerged on the same day new episodes of “Rehab Addict” were scheduled to air.
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“Oh, fart n*****,” Curtis said in the video that was posted by Radar Online on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026.
Right after she said it, she immediately said, “What the f*** is that that I just said? Nick, you gotta, you gotta, can you kill that?”
It was initially reported that this happened while Curtis was filming for the show two years prior. However, in an apology posted to social media on Thursday, Curtis said the video was recorded on her personal time using her own equipment and was not connected to HGTV or the show.
“That was all my footage, my cameras, my house-it was not for HGTV, not for a show, no one would have ever seen the footage -I just didn’t want it there because it was a moment of deep regret and shame,” Curtis said in her Instagram post. “There was no fear of network, etc. I didn’t want to ever hear me say that again -it’s that simple.”
She added that HGTV was not aware of the footage and that only a small group of people present at the time had access to it, and that nobody besides Curtis and her ex-boyfriend had the footage drives.
HGTV canceled the show and released a statement, saying it was “recently made aware of an offensive racial comment.” The network added that such language is “hurtful and disappointing to our viewers, partners, and employees” and does not align with its values.
Curtis apologized in the post and said she is “filled with remorse and regret.”
“This isn’t a post I ever thought I’d be writing and I’ve drafted this more times that I can count and nothing seems to be enough,” Curtis said. “There is anger, there is hate, there is pain. I’m here to take it. I haven’t been hiding, ignoring, waiting for this to pass. I’ve just been playing this all over and over again and watching the video and having this all out together to say the right thing, do the right thing after doing the wrongest of wrongs.”
She also claimed the footage was “stolen, manipulated, edited and sold to a tabloid” to coincide with her return to television.
Curtis said she will continue to be transparent about the situation and that she will be “speaking live” on Friday.
Here’s the full caption and subsequent comment from the Instagram post:
“This isn’t a post I ever thought I’d be writing and I’ve drafted this more times that I can count and nothing seems to be enough.
There is anger, there is hate, there is pain. I’m here to take it. I haven’t been hiding, ignoring, waiting for this to pass. I’ve just been playing this all over and over again and watching the video and having this all out together to say the right thing, do the right thing after doing the wrongest of wrongs.
I am sorry. I am filled with remorse and regret, just as much as I was one second after that word was said 4 years ago in 2022. I show this, I say this and I realize you are getting a limited view as what has been circulating is a clip of MY footage that was stolen then manipulated, edited and sold to s tabloid to coincide with my return to television only to create this chaos of hate, anger, disappointment.
I make no excuse for this. I am not s victim. Nothing I say or do will take that moment 4 years ago away. I know it was wrong. This will never happen again.
I want to be clear that about this ….I’m not addressing this because I was “caught”. Im here because I am not okay with the fact that I said that. I am and have been submerged in the African American community my entire adult life. I’m a mom of two children, I chose to live and work in the inner cities of many major cities, but most famously Minneapolis and Detroit. Yes, I hear that word on s daily basis, people say it all around me, I listen to it in music, I’m not secluded on the suburbs. I am the white, small blonde in the neighborhood who knows that’s a word that represents evil, pain, torture, trauma when used by someone like me. And yet, it came from me…..
You ask -how did that just easily come out. I don’t have an answer for that. It did and it shocked me as shown. Now, you ask -what we’re you even saying? I throw together words, this is documented on 15 years of tv, interviews, posts of these random words. The most famous “son of s beehive digger” which took the place of SOB when I became a mommy and couid not swear on TV. I’m recent years, I’ve added fart digger, fart knocker. It’s documented.
I had a lot of great conversations today with some of you who sent me messages airing your disappointment —I called you and we conversed and found resolution. I am forever grateful.
I have disappointed so many and that includes my children who I had to tell. My youngest said “you don’t say that word” and I had to say did. We found the raw footage and I will be releasing that tomorrow -my children viewed it with me and saw what happened, a mistake that I realized right away and went into panic.
Not terrified this would ruin my career, no, terrified I put that terrible word into the universe. That was all my footage, my cameras, my house-it was not for HGTV, not for a show, no one would have ever seen the footage -I just didn’t want it there because it was a moment of deep regret and shame. There was no fear of network, etc. I didn’t want to ever hear me say that again -it’s that simple.
HGTV was not aware because it was shot on my own personal time, done and equipment. No one was aware except the people in that room. No one had that footage drives except myself and my ex bf.
I will be speaking live tomorrow. Please, send me anything -if you want to have a conversation -let’s get on a call.
I will continue to be as I have always been —transparent and real with all of you.
I’m sorry and I understand the hurt, the anger.
Detroit, I disappointed you -and for that I am sorry -I always just wanted to show the beauty of our city and people and I have failed.
This is done without a PR firm, against most people’s advice as it’s just me and there’s typos and I probably said something wrong, again —-I hope not."
Nicole Curtis Instagram Post on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026