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With the final episode of “Good Bones” about to air on HGTV and the family estranged, cast member Tad Starsiak is speaking out about working through “negative feelings.”
Mina Starsiak Hawk and her mom, Karen E. Laine, have starred on HGTV‘s “Good Bones” since its 2016 debut. But Tad, a contractor on the show who’s Starsiak Hawk’s half-brother, has been part of the cast since the beginning, too. According to Starsiak Hawk, he’s also been part of the family fight that led to the demise of “Good Bones.” The last episode of the show’s eighth and final season will air on October 17, 2023.
On August 28, two weeks after announcing the cancellation of “Good Bones,” Starsiak Hawk revealed on her “Mina AF” podcast that tension between her and several family members on the show was a big reason for the series’ demise.
“My mom and I aren’t in a great place,” she said. “My brother Tad and I aren’t in a great place. My brother William and I are in a kind-of-like-nonexistent place. It’s complicated without even being complicated. We don’t really engage much and the last engagement wasn’t super-positive, and that was maybe a year ago.”
On October 11, Tad — her half-brother and a project manager on the show who often provides comic relief and optimism during stressful renovations — uploaded an Instagram post with his reflections on “negative feelings” and “being angry.” Though he didn’t specifically mention his family’s rift, many fans suspect his comments were made in response to the ongoing drama.
Here’s what you need to know:
Tad Starsiak Posts About Anger After Half-Sister Mina Starsiak Hawk Accuses Him of ‘Awful’ Comments
Starsiak Hawk, 39, hasn’t shared many details on what caused her family’s rift. But she did cite “work ties” and “financial ties” as part of the problem in one recent podcast and, on the September 18 episode, she spoke about a nasty exchange with Tad.
“My brother Tad said some really awful stuff to me and I’m sure he would say that I’ve said some awful stuff to him too,” she revealed. “But the most recent stuff he said to me, he can’t say it’s not what he said. He can’t say I misunderstood. It’s in text and it’s black and white and that was kind of my final straw there.”
Tad, who turned 30 in September, has not responded publicly to her comments, but on October 11, he posted an Instagram video of himself talking about working through negative feelings.
“One of our biggest problems as human beings is that we’re meaning-making machines,” he said while sitting on his couch. “We think we have to apply meaning to everything, and it makes sense because your brain is always trying to stay a step ahead of you and figure out a narrative of why something happened, but we need to learn how to turn that off, too.”
Tad, whom HGTV has described as a “mental health and wellness guru” in addition to his construction expertise, then gave readers an analogy to explain his point.
“If you’re driving down the road, and someone honks at you or someone gives you the finger, you know, usually our first reaction is anger,” he said. “We start to feel negative, but there’s power in the pause. We don’t have to feel that way. You can let that moment pass without it meaning anything. I know that’s crazy, but you can. It doesn’t have to mean anything.”
He finished his monologue by stating, “Life is so, so short, and the meaning that you give to things needs to be powerful ones.”
‘Good Bones’ Fans React to Tad Starsiak’s Post About Anger
In the caption of his post, Tad also wrote, “Recognize the power in the pause and release those negative feelings. We only get so much time to live on this earth, why spend any amount on it being angry? It’s just not worth it.”
His statements generated a variety of reactions from his followers, including one former “people pleaser” who wrote that it’s unhealthy to avoid anger and that it’s an “essential and a valid emotion!”
Tad replied, “I 100% see your point of view. Any emotion is a valid emotion and no one gets to tell us otherwise. What I’m suggesting is that we learn emotional skills that help us move through negative emotions more quickly or bypass them all together. I still get angry, but I’m actively working on letting more things go so I can stay centered in a happy calm state”
Many fans suspected his words were directly in response to Starsiak Hawk’s estrangement from other family members, writing that they hope the family can heal and come back together to make good memories together, like the “Good Bones” episode in which he received a bachelor pad makeover.
“To hear that you’re having trouble as a family hurts my heart,” one fan wrote in her comment, which Tad liked. “My husband used to say that words are like bullets. Once they’re fired, all you can do is deal with the carnage they caused. You can’t brush this under a rug, and you certainly can’t act like I didn’t happen. I’m not saying you’re in the wrong. All I’m saying is you have to sit down together and work this out. You need each other even if you think you don’t. I wish you the very best in life and love.”
Inside Mina Starsiak Hawk’s Complicated Family History
Tad and Laine are clearly on the same side of the family feud, but they’re not blood relatives. The family behind “Good Bones” is a complicated one. So much so that Starsiak Hawk and Laine filmed a video for HGTV in 2017 to try explaining their family tree.
Laine married Casey Starsiak, the mother-daughter duo said as they created a diagram on a giant easel, and they had three kids — William, C.R. and Mina.
Starsiak Hawk then crossed out the line drawn between her parents to symbolize their divorce and said, “Real life hits you over the head and this gets snapped out.”
After her parents’ divorced, they both married multiple times and had additional kids, per Yahoo.
Laine married a man named Randy and they had a daughter named Kelsy, the outlet reported. After that marriage ended in divorce, Laine wed another man named Mick, but it’s unclear when they split. In 2015, she began dating Roger, married him two years later, and they are still together.
As for her dad Casey, Starsiak Hawk said, “Then Dad married Cheryl, and dad and Cheryl had Tad and Jess.”
“Then they got divorced,” Laine quipped.
In fact, before and after her marriage to Casey, Cheryl was married to a contractor named Lenny who appeared on “Good Bones” during its early seasons.
Tad Starsiak Leaned on Karen E. Laine After His Mom Died When He Was Young
Sadly, Tad’s mother Cheryl died when he was 12, he shared in a tribute via Instagram. Already connected to Tad via her ex-husband Casey and their kids, Laine took him under her wing, according to Screen Rant.
“When I was going through that rough time, every day I woke up and she was there for me,” Tad told HGTV in 2018. “It’s great having her as a teacher and as another mom.”
When Tad posted a photo with Laine on October 10, his caption questioned whether “Good Bones” is truly ending.
Tad wrote, “There’s only two episodes of Good Bones left this season…and forever!(?)”
The “Good Bones” series finale will see Tad planning a future with his girlfriend Anna, from moving into a renovated home to proposing, per HGTV. The episode will premiere on October 17 at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
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