Heavy/HGTV UK/YouTube Ben and Erin Napier
HGTV announced in November 2023 that the second half of “Home Town” season seven would premiere on Sunday, January 7, 2024, at 8 p.m. Eastern. Now, in a December 14 interview with People, hosts Ben and Erin Napier are opening up about what fans can expect from the new crop of episodes, and why these may be some of their favorites from the entire series.
“I really think it’s some of our best episodes ever,” Erin told the outlet. “We get to tell our origin story. Where we met, at our college campus, we get to do a house there.”
“Which is an incredible honor,” Ben chimed in to say.
“You also see Ben’s recovery from major surgery, which was a lot,” Erin added of the new season.
Ben & Erin Napier Were Starstruck in the New ‘Home Town’ Episodes
When People asked the Napiers if they’d met anybody that left them starstruck recently, and Ben shared the name “Patrick Jephson.”
“He was Princess Diana’s press secretary,” Erin explained, with Ben adding, “He and his wife are ‘Home Town’ fans and he came in [to my woodshop store] and he said ‘Actually my great-grandmother was at Queen Victoria’s coronation. So he knew all about Victorian furniture. We actually put a microphone on him, he came into the scene. It was the greatest small town weird thing.”
“And now we talk every day, and it’s so cool to know somebody who has touched history,” Erin added.
While the “Home Town” episode with Jephson’s surprise visit has yet to air, Erin shared a photo from the chance encounter on March 9, writing in her caption, “I have been completely enthralled by Princess Diana since I was a little child, when everywhere we went people told me my mother looked exactly like her. It made me so proud. I stood up tall when I was with her. And the night Diana died was my 12th birthday. It was the first death of someone I felt I somehow knew, though we’d of course never met. I told him this story with tears in my eyes and then I laughed at how ridiculous I felt and he told me, ‘Diana always wanted a daughter!’ Today two Mississippi kids got to shake the hands of living history. I won’t ever forget it.”
In the final moment of their People interview, Ben and Erin teased that they will be tackling the biggest house they’ve ever done in these new “Home Town” episodes, which Erin clarified is “not exactly a house.”
Erin Napier is Working on a New Painting
Despite being in the midst of filming “Home Town” season eight, and getting ready for the holidays, the Napiers are still finding ways to unwind.
Erin shared a look at one of her creative outlets in a December 14 Instagram post, which she captioned, “up to something 🎨.” Her post featured two photos, the first of a piece of paper that she was using as a palette, covered in color paints. The second photo shows the still-life scene that Erin was painting, including glasses, a bowl of fruit, and berry branches in a vase.
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