Nicole Curtis, the longtime host of HGTV‘s home renovation show “Rehab Addict,” has apologized for saying a racial slur while filming that was caught in a resurfaced clip from 2022. HGTV canceled “Rehab Addict” this week after the clip of Curtis spread online, and the host has claimed the footage was “stolen then manipulated, edited and sold to a tabloid to coincide with [her] return to television.”
In the video, Curtis appears to accidentally say the N-word while renovating a home and immediately expresses shock, saying “what the fuck is that that I just said?” She then asks someone on her team to “kill that.”
“HGTV was recently made aware of an offensive racial comment made during the filming of ‘Rehab Addict,’” the network told Variety in a statement on Wednesday. “Not only is language like this hurtful and disappointing to our viewers, partners, and employees – it does not align with the values of HGTV. Accordingly, we have removed the series from all HGTV platforms. We remain dedicated to fostering a culture of respect and inclusion across our content and our workplace.”
Curtis wrote a lengthy apology on her Instagram account on Thursday night.
“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,” she wrote. “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 a tabloid to coincide with my return to television only to create this chaos of hate, anger, disappointment.”
The first two episodes of “Rehab Addict” Season 9 aired in July 2025, but the run was cut short after Curtis decided to shelve the remaining episodes and recut them for a later release. The rest of the season was supposed to return Feb. 12, but that plan has been scrapped.
“I make no excuse for this,” she continued. “I am not a 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.’ 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 further explained, “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 a beehive digger” which took the place of SOB when I became a mommy and could not swear on TV. I’m recent years, I’ve added fart digger, fart knocker. It’s documented.”