Nicole Curtis
DETROIT (FOX 2) - Nicole Curtis posted an apology that included what she claims really happened after a video surfaced of the "Rehab Addict" star saying a racial slur.
HGTV dropped the show after the video of Curtis saying the N-word made its rounds online. In a social media post, Curtis apologized and said it was a mistake.
The backstory:
In the video, which was first posted by the tabloid Radar Online, Curtis is seen working on a house. She appears to be struggling before saying, "Oh fart N-word."
After saying the slur, she immediately turns around, says, "What the f--- is that that I just said?" She then begins asking her film crew to kill the scene. One person is heard telling her that he can't.
HGTV cancels 'Rehab Addict' after video of Nicole Curtis saying N-word surfaces
After a video of "Rehab Addict" host Nicole Curtis saying the N-word surfaced, HGTV pulled the show from its platforms.
The video quickly spread, leading to HGTV releasing a statement saying that "Rehab Addict" had been pulled from all platforms.
"Not only is language like this hurtful and disappointing to our viewers, partners, and employees - it does not align with the values of HGTV," the network wrote.
What they're saying:
Curtis posted an apology on Instagram on Thursday evening. This longer apology followed another statement made earlier in the day in which Curtis also apologized and said the word was not part of her vocabulary.
In the later post and a subsequent comment on the post, she said she was "filled with remorse and regret," and apologized for disappointing the city of Detroit.
"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," she wrote. "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 also explained what she claims happened.
Though it was reported that the slur slipped out during a filming for the HGTV show, Curtis said that wasn't the case. She said that it occurred while filming in her home in 2022.
"That was all my footage, my cameras, my house - it was not for HGTV," she wrote, adding that only she and an ex-boyfriend had access to the footage.
She said the version of the footage is a "limited view," and vowed to release the full video.
"What has been circulating is a clip of MY footage that was stolen then manipulated, edited and sold to a tabloid to coinsite with my return to television only to create this chaos of hate, anger, disappointment," she wrote.
Curtis also said that her reaction in the video wasn't because she was worried about her career.
"Not terrified this would ruin my career, no, terrified I put that terrible word into my universe," she wrote.
After the video was made public, many people questioned why the word was used with such ease, a concern Curtis also addressed with an explanation.
"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," she wrote. "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. I’m recent years, I’ve added fart digger, fart knocker. It’s documented."
Editor's note: Spelling errors in Curtis' statement have been corrected for clarity. Curtis acknowledged in a comment that there were typos, saying that she made the statement without a public relations firm.
What's next:
Curtis said that she had phone calls with some people who sent her upset messages, and also reached out to some people commenting on her post, saying that she wanted to have a conversation with them.
She said she plans to release the full video from the filming on Friday, and also will go live on social media to address the situation. She did not provide a time that she would do so.
The Source: Previous reporting and Nicole Curtis' Instagram account were used to write this update.
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