Getty Nicole Curtis attends the grand opening of the Cost Plus World Market's Hyannis, Massachusetts location in 2016.
HGTV’s Nicole Curtis made her television debut 11 years ago on October 14, 2010. To mark the occasion she took to Instagram with a throwback of an early promotional photo.
“My first night on TV. 34 years old,” she captioned the post. “I didn’t want to be famous, I just wanted to be able to pay the bills. Been a wild, wild ride and I have so many people to thank.”
Curtis continued, revealing she came across early footage when her son Ethan “was just a 6th grader” and she “wanted to reach through my screen and warp back in time.” She added, “Would I do anything differently? Most everything.”
Now of days, Ethan is in his 20s and her hit show “Rehab Addict” aired more than 118 episodes, as she revealed on her website. Curtis currently stars in “Rehab Addict Rescue” where she helps homeowners renovate old properties.
Her time on-screen, and her personal life off, has not always been smooth sailing over the last 11 years. She took to her Instagram Story to provide more details and throwback photos.
Curtis Was ‘Hesitant’ to Do TV
Curtis revealed she was hesitant in the beginning but shared a snippet of an email from Producer John Kitchener. He wrote, “Look at this as a once in a lifetime opportunity. I really believe we are on the cusp on creating a hit TV show, one that could really break through.”
Throughout the show’s journey, she renovated homes in Minneapolis, Akron and her hometown of Detroit.
Along the way, Curtis discovered she was pregnant with son Harper whom she shares with ex-boyfriend Shane Maguire.
She was secretly pregnant while filming renovations on the Grand Boulevard property, returning only two weeks after birth to film at the Ransom Gillis House. She recounted that “People wrote mean things about my big boobs on tv” while she was breastfeeding.
Along the way, she released her book “Better Than New” in 2016. “Got a book deal before all that & tried to get out of it,” she wrote, though it ended up becoming a New York Times bestseller. In a behind-the-scenes tidbit, Curtis admitted she wrote the book while “nursing poolside” at the Detroit Yacht Club. “True Story.”
Curtis Detailed Her Return to TV After Personal Struggles
Curtis faced personal struggles after the birth of her son, Harper. “Right about here s*** got real,” she wrote. “My life went upside down. My personal life was in tabloids everyday.”
In a likely reference to her custody battle with Maguire, Curtis wrote that she lost her privacy overnight and “became, reluctantly, an advocate for family court reform.”
“At one point, I had as much in attorney fees as I had made in my entire first 6 years of tv. But …I prayed hard, I invested some serious $ in a therapist & I leaned in hard to my friends,” she wrote in her Instagram Story. “I discovered what mattered most in my life & it wasn’t my show so we took a ‘hiatus.’” She announced on social media in 2017 that she was returning to television.
The former couple reached a custody agreement when their son was 3-years-old. According to The Blast, they agreed to share joint physical and legal custody.
When Curtis returned to the small screen, she noted that the “vibe was different” and that people wrote in to say “not sure if I like her so happy.” Her mantra became “F that noise” and soon saw the return of endorsement deals.
Curtis thanks “those that pulled me through” and her “patient” fans. As she summed up, “11 years ago, I was just a little, broke mommy from Detroit who wanted a better life and I’m ready for what’s next.”
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Nicole Curtis Reflects on Life Since Her TV Debut