Heavy/HGTV "Good Bones" star Karen E. Laine is celebrating becoming a grandmother again
Former “Good Bones” star Karen E. Laine is a grandma again! The HGTV personality introduced the world to her new grandbaby via an Instagram post on January 19, 2024. Eager to share the happy news, Laine broke her personal rule of not showing her grandkids’ faces on social media.
“When your baby has a baby, all the self imposed rules about not posting pictures of kids who are too young to give permission go out the window, but just this once,” she wrote.
The birth of her latest grandchild — the first child for her daughter Kelsy Spaeth and her husband Neil — is an especially happy development for Laine after a year of family drama. Her marriage to her fourth husband crumbled in 2023 and she’s been estranged from her oldest daughter and “Good Bones” co-star Mina Starsiak Hawk, leading to the end of their hit show after eight seasons.
Here’s what you need to know:
Karen E. Laine Has Lots of Grandchildren, But Almost Never Shares Photos of Them
In her post, Laine said she hopes to spend lots of time with her new grandbaby, which will require traveling back and forth between her native Indianapolis, where most of her family lives, and the home she’s been renovating in Wilmington, North Carolina.
“Kelsy and Neil are doing a great job,” she wrote in her post. “I’m looking forward to watching them be amazing parents and getting to spend as much time as possible with this nugget. #bege”
Laine’s post was unusual for her, since she doesn’t typically share her grandkids’ photos on social media. In an October Instagram post, she revealed that she had driven one of her grandsons to his soccer game, but that she had a strict rule against sharing his photo.
“I had the honor of driving a grandchild to his last soccer game of the season,” she wrote. “And, when he is an adult, he will get to decide what pictures of him will be posted publicly. Until then, it’s me, the dog, and blurry people in the background.”
Excited for another grandchild to join the mix, Laine revealed her daughter Kelsy’s pregnancy on an October 2023 episode of the “What’s Up Wilmington” podcast.
She said, “My youngest daughter, who I really thought maybe was never going to have kids — I trained myself not to ask her because she doesn’t want to be bothered like that and it’s rude to keep asking your child, ‘So when are you going to have a baby?’ That’s rude, so I don’t ask her — she’s pregnant. She’s due in December.”
The Spaeths’ baby registry states December 28 as the “arrival date” of their firstborn, who joins a double-digit group of Laine’s grandchildren.
In 2018, just after Starsiak Hawk had her first child, Jack, Laine told USA Today that he was her 11th grandchild. Starsiak Hawk and her husband, Steve Hawk, also welcomed a daughter, Charlotte, in 2020.
“They call me BeGe, which stands for Best Grandma Ever,” Laine told the paper.
But Starsiak Hawk revealed on her “Mina AF” podcast in September 2023 that Laine has had little involvement with her kids. Given the strain in their relationship, she opted not to invite Laine to Jack’s fifth birthday weeks earlier. But she said she was surprised that on Charlie’s third birthday, Laine made no attempt to reach out.
“Charlie’s birthday was this past weekend, and my mom didn’t call or text or give her a card or drop a present on the door and I know she feels like she has very valid reasons for not working on developing relationships with my kids,” Mina said. “But I just can’t understand that.”
Amid Family Rift, Karen E. Laine Remains Close With Daughter Kelsy, As Does Mina Starsiak Hawk
Kelsy is Laine’s daughter with her second husband, Randy Gray, according to People. Laine also had three kids with her first husband, Casey Starsiak — sons CR and William as well as Starsiak Hawk. When Casey’s second wife Cheryl died, Laine took the two children they’d had together — Jessica and Thadeus (known to “Good Bones” fans as Tad) — under her wing, and still considers them family.
Kelsy appeared on early seasons of “Good Bones,” per Distractify, including an episode in which a home was renovated for her and her now-husband Neil, whom she married in November 2020. From 2018 to 2021, according to her LinkedIn profile, Spaeth worked as Chief Business Officer for Two Chicks and a Hammer, the renovation company that Laine and Starsiak Hawk co-owned until Laine retired in 2019.
Despite the family drama that has developed over the last year, with Starsiak-Hawk revealing in August that she had not talked to Laine nor her brother Tad in a year, it appears Kelsy remains close with both her mom and Starsiak Hawk, who called Kelsy her “baby sister” in an October 2019 birthday post.
In October 2023, Starsiak Hawk talked on her podcast about getting an outfit for a Bridgerton-themed birthday party for her sister. In another episode in late November, she talked about conflicting Christmas Eve plans between her husband’s family and her own, organized by her sister, including a cookie-making pajama party.
“My very thoughtful sister plans very far in advance,” Mina said. “So she sent out a spreadsheet with the pajama sizes and the activities for Thanksgiving through Christmas, probably in, like, September.”
Starsiak Hawk did reveal in a January 2024 podcast episode that she wound up seeing all of her family members over the Christmas after having a rocky Thanksgiving.
“I did end up going to all of the family celebrations,” she said. “I think because after Thanksgiving I adjusted my mindset to ‘I can’t control any of this. I’ve said my piece. People know where I stand, and me being angst-full or upset or stressed out at this point is really affecting nobody but me.”