Perhaps Nicole Curtis should have hired a crisis PR team.
Curtis, the HGTV host who was fired after video of her saying “fart n***er” while filming Rehab Addict leaked, joined Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club on Tuesday to explain herself. It … didn’t go well.
“What is a ‘fart n***er?’” host Charlamagne tha God asked at the top of the in-person interview. A fair question.
“I have no idea. I have no idea,” Curtis said. “That isn’t anything that I ever said before, so I don’t have any idea.”
“That is a word that I do not condone,” Curtis said.
Curtis said she never heard the phrase “fart n***er” before it came out of her own mouth. Her explanation seems to be that she accidentally conflated “fart knocker” and “fart digger” into one. It is true that Curtis uses the nonsense phrase “fart knocker” on her show, I’ve heard it, though I can’t specifically recall her saying “fart digger.” Not that I’ve seen every episode of every show Curtis has done.
Curtis further stated that she often uses nonsense “fart” phrases due to her being a boy mom and the fact that she cannot swear on the show. She blamed the conflation of “fart knocker” and “fart digger” on her frantic paces of working and speaking.
For the most part, the radio personalities didn’t buy what Curtis was selling — especially Charlamagne (real name Lenard Larry McKelvey), who had assigned her “Donkey of the Day” status weeks ago when footage of Curtis using the racial slur first leaked. Curtis says after her crew informed her of the designation, she reached out to the radio show to have a conversation about the incident.
“When this first came out, everyone suggested that I hire a crisis PR team, right? Or go do this, go do that, and make a good show out of it,” Curtis said. “Like, no, that’s not what I’m about.”
Asked how the footage came to be public, Curtis said “another human in the world” had access to the video and leaked it. Curtis did not reveal who she believes that person is, but said the person she suspects is a man who is not Black, she said.
“In my humble opinion, who I think it is, I think needed to ruin me and crush my soul,” Curtis said.
Another talking point that didn’t go over great with Charlamagne is Curtis regularly reminding the hosts that she was born and raised in Detroit, where she still lives. Basically, Curtis was saying she lives and works among the Black community, has Black friends and is sensitive to the sensitivities behind the N-word.
“I’m not some token white bitch,” Curtis said.
Watch video clips of the interview below.
“HGTV was recently made aware of an offensive racial comment made during the filming of Rehab Addict,” a spokesperson for the network said in a statement shared with The Hollywood Reporter one month ago. “Not only is language like this hurtful and disappointing to our viewers, partners, and employees — it does not align with the values of HGTV. Accordingly, we have removed the series from all HGTV platforms. We remain dedicated to fostering a culture of respect and inclusion across our content and our workplace.”
