Nicole Curtis is confronting the fallout from a leaked video that captured her using a racial slur, reiterating an apology while insisting the footage was stolen and manipulated. The longtime Rehab Addict host has lost her HGTV series and related streaming exposure, yet she is publicly trying to separate accountability for her language from what she describes as a betrayal by someone she trusted. Her comments have turned a straightforward scandal into a more complicated fight over privacy, intent, and the limits of personal footage in a television star’s life.
At the center is Curtis’ decision to say the N-word on camera, a moment she now calls “terrible” and inexcusable, paired with her claim that the video was never meant for broadcast. As HGTV and its parent platforms move to distance themselves from Rehab Addict, Curtis is asking viewers to hold two ideas at once: that she alone is responsible for the word she used, and that the way the clip surfaced, in her view, does not reflect how it was originally recorded.
The racial slur, the firing, and HGTV’s swift break
The controversy began while Nicole Curtis was filming the ninth season of Rehab Addict, when she was caught on camera saying the N-word during a workday on set. Reports describe the clip as showing the home renovation star reacting in frustration, using the slur out loud and then appearing to realize what she had said. The incident did not air on television, but once the video leaked online and spread quickly, the moment shifted from a private outburst into a reputational crisis that HGTV could not ignore.
HGTV responded by cutting ties with Curtis and canceling Rehab Addict, ending a long-running relationship between the network and one of its most recognizable hosts. Executives concluded that her language did not align with the values of HGTV and pulled the show from its schedule, with new episodes of season nine shelved and existing seasons removed from streaming platforms such as HBO Max and Discovery Plus. Coverage of the decision has repeatedly linked the cancellation to the racial slur caught on camera, with one report on HGTV’s Rehab Addict stating that the network said her conduct did not align with its values, and another detailing how the series was pulled from HBO Max and as part of the fallout.
Curtis’ apology and her claim the video was “stolen, then manipulated”
In the days after HGTV’s decision, Nicole Curtis issued a lengthy public apology in which she acknowledged using the N-word and said she made “no excuse” for it. She described feeling “hate, anger, disappointment” toward herself and emphasized that she was not terrified about her career, but rather about having “put that terrible word into the universe.” In that statement, Curtis told fans and critics that the slur came from her mouth and that she understood why people were hurt, a message detailed in coverage of her initial apology and in a later piece tracking how Nicole Curtis doubles on that remorse.
Alongside that apology, Curtis has advanced a second, more contentious argument, claiming that the clip that ended her show was never meant to exist in the form that viewers saw. She has said the footage was personal material recorded on her own camera, not on HGTV’s equipment, and that it was taken without her consent, then edited in a way that stripped out the surrounding context. One report on the cancellation notes that Curtis told followers the footage was stolen,, while another local account of her statement quotes her describing the clip as “all my footage, my cam” that she believed had been sold to a tabloid. In her reissued apology, Curtis again insisted that her word choice was indefensible but argued that the way the video was obtained and circulated represented a separate violation that has deepened her sense of betrayal.
Industry fallout, community reaction, and what comes next
The collapse of Rehab Addict has had immediate consequences beyond Curtis’ personal brand, including the removal of the show from streaming libraries and the loss of future work for crew members and contractors who expected to be part of season nine. Coverage of the cancellation has emphasized that HGTV not only halted production but also pulled the series from platforms such as HBO Max and Discovery Plus, with one report on Rehab Addict canceled explaining that new episodes were initially slated to air before the scandal derailed those plans. Another overview of her career describes how Rehab Addict was after she was caught using a racial slur and notes that HGTV said her behavior did not align with the network’s values, underscoring how quickly corporate support evaporated once the clip surfaced.
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