Nicole Curtis, the former HGTV star whose Rehab Addict show was canceled after a video surfaced of her using a racial slur, is now claiming she was being extorted.
The designer clarified in a new post on social media that nobody in her crew leaked the video of the moment she blurted out the n-word while filming, revealing that it was someone close to her.
“I was not contracted to any network or show. (think free agent in sports) Any crew hired, paid by me, The footage is mine. My crew didn’t steal my footage,” Curtis said on Instagram. “I don’t have ‘sets’. I own all my properties. In other words, no one is my ‘boss’, I’m the boss. I create product & sell the rights of it & my likeness for limited contracted use.”
She continued, “Someone personal (not crew) had access, demanded [money], I didn’t pay-here we are.”
Rehab Addict was supposed to return to HGTV on February 11 but the network pulled the plug on airing the new season after a video of Curtis went viral of her using the n-word.
“HGTV was recently made aware of an offensive racial comment made during the filming of Rehab Addict. Not only is language like this hurtful and disappointing to our viewers, partners, and employees – it does not align with the values of HGTV,” the network said in a statement shared with Deadline.
The renovation series was subsequently removed from the HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming platforms.
Days after the fallout, Curtis apologized for using the racial slur and claimed the footage “was stolen then manipulated, edited and sold to a tabloid to coincide with my return to television only to create this chaos of hate, anger, disappointment.”
Curtis said there’s “no excuse for this” and noted she was “not a victim,” adding, “Nothing I say or do will take that moment 4 years ago away. I know it was wrong. This will never happen again.”
Read Curtis latest Instagram post below.