Nicole Curtis has broken her silence after her latest attempt to “rehab” her career has been squashed, just hours before new episodes of her HGTV show Rehab Addict was due to air.
Nicole— who, just yesterday, made a surprise announcement that new episodes of the show would begin airing Wednesday— was fired by HGTV after Radar Online shared a video of unaired footage from the previous season in which Nicole is heard using the N-word.
In the video, Nicole was in the middle of a frustrating project when she blurted out, “Why? It’s the last one. Oh, fart n*****.” After realizing the racial slur was caught on camera, she begged for the crew to delete it, saying, “Nick, you gotta, you gotta, can you kill that? F**k my life.”
The site claims that the clip was filmed about two years ago for an episode that aired last June.
After Radar Online posted the video on Wednesday, HGTV gave an exclusive statement that condemned Nicole’s use of the slur and confirmed she had been fired.
“We understand that language like this is hurtful and disappointing to our viewers, partners and employees, and it does not align with the values of HGTV,” the network explained. “We remain dedicated to fostering a culture of respect and inclusion across our content and our workplace.”
In addition to firing Nicole, the network also “removed the series from all HGTV platforms.”
Nicole initially did not respond to the video being posted, instead taking to Instagram on Wednesday to discuss how proud she was of the new season of ‘Rehab Addict.’
View this post on Instagram
Eventually, though, she issued a statement to TMZ, as well as an apology for using the slur.
“I want to be clear: the word in question is wrong and not part of my vocabulary and never has been, and I apologize to everyone,” Nicole stated, adding that she had been previously unaware that HGTV had pulled the show.
“I’m grateful for the 15-year journey we’ve shared,” Nicole continued. “It’s been a meaningful chapter, but my focus isn’t on my career. My focus, at this moment is rightfully on my relationships, and my community — the people who truly know my character and where my heart is.”
HGTV has since taken down their post promoting the premiere of Season 10 of ‘Rehab Addict.’
The show premiered in 2010 on the DIY Network, where it ran for three seasons before moving to HGTV for Season 4. In 2021, a spin-off called Rehab Addict Rescue began airing on HGTV as well.
UPDATE! On Friday, Nicole released a full statement on Instagram, revealing that the clip in question was filmed in 2022. She claimed that she often used the term “fart knocker” or “fart digger” in place of cuss words, and that she accidentally said “fart n****r” and was immediately horrified when it came out of her mouth.
“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,” Nicole wrote. “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,” she continued. “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.”
She went on to inform fans that they are getting a “limited view” of footage that was “stolen then manipulated, edited and sold to [a] tabloid to coincide with my return to television only to create this chaos of hate, anger, disappointment.”
View this post on Instagram
“I make no excuse for this. I am not [a] victim,” Nicole wrote. “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.’ I’m 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 [a] 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…..”
She went on to explain how the word flew out of her mouth accidentally.
“You ask -how did that just easily come out?” Nicole wrote. “I don’t have an answer for that. It did and it shocked me as shown. Now, you ask -what were 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 [a] beehive digger,’ which took the place of SOB when I became a mommy and could not swear on TV. [In] recent years, I’ve added fart digger, fart knocker. It’s documented.”
View this post on Instagram
Nicole went on to discuss conversations she had with fans in her messages about what happened, and revealed how her kids took the news.
“My youngest said ‘you don’t say that word’ and I had to say did,” she wrote. “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.”
She explained that the incident was filmed at her home and wasn’t for any of her shows.
“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,” Nicole wrote. “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.”
Nicole again apologized to her fans, as well as the city of Detroit.
“I’m sorry and I understand the hurt, the anger,” she wrote. “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.”
You can watch the clip that got Nicole fired below.
(Photo: YouTube; Instagram; HGTV)
13 Responses
It is not ok for ANY race to say the word. Get that crap out of music, daily vocabulary, etc. We can’t condone one race while condemned the other.
Unless she had a stroke right then…*clearly* it’s part of her “vocabulary.”
Well they used the C word on her CANCELLED! Haha karma lady karma!!!
When I’m stressed and something goes wrong I will drop variants of F-bombs that would make a pirate blush. I have never used THAT word because it actually is NOT part of my vocabulary. F-bombs definitely are. She’s a liar.
She obviously has used that phrase before because that’s not the kind of thing that just happens spontaneously. And, I’m guessing that it leaked because the crew knows that this wasn’t a one-time freak event.
As a white person, I truly don’t understand how this happens. I have never said it and never thought to say it. It doesn’t slip out. Have I dropped the f bomb in front of my kids when startled? Absolutely. Because I do use it, rarely. But I have never said THAT word.
If she said it, she uses it. The only exception would be, like, Tourette’s because that’s basically intrusive thoughts winning
I don’t believe you have never said the word in your whole life! Are you Mark Furman from the OJ Case?
Neither have I. My mother did not tolerate that type of talk. My brother did once..my mother knocked him down and said I better never hear that word out of your mouth again.
I have NEVER used that word in my life. My parents have never used that word ever in my life. Nor have I ever heard it from ANYONE I love or am related to. It’s not in our vocabulary. But I’m assuming from your comment that you don’t believe that white folks don’t say it? So if you’re white, then that means YOU use it! And if you’re not white, it’s sad that you think all white folks use it…
“The word in question…is not a part of my vocabulary and never has been” – Nicole
Oh okay, sure. Because when humans are deeply frustrated they just randomly shout words they have never thought of or spoken before. Or is it more likely that you have used that word often enough that when you’re frustrated and forget yourself It becomes your go to word? Maybe she can start a podcast with Paula Deen and call it “Bigots that bake and stuff “.
“I want to be clear: the word in question is wrong and not part of my vocabulary and never has been”
But it just came out of her mouth.