Home Town star Erin Napier debunked rumors of a feud between herself and fellow HGTV stars Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines. A tabloid report claimed a rift between the Gaines and Napier and Ben Napier, who are rising stars at the network. Last week, Napier called the rumor “dumb and not true” and applauded another site for debunking it.
Back on Thursday, OK! Magazine cited an “insider,” who claimed the Napiers and Gaines are “fiercely competitive” and the comparisons “bug them to no end.” The insider said the Gaines are “feeling the heat” from the Napiers, even as Discovery prepares to launch the Gaines’ Magnolia Network. Although the Napiers are based in Mississippi and the Gaines in Texas, the Gaines are “irritated” to see the Napiers “copying everything they do.” Joanna even “wishes” Napier would “stop ridiculing her minimalist design with her own cluttered grand millennial style.”
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OK!‘s supposed insider claimed the Napiers have even criticized the Gaines for “going Hollywood” by appearing with big celebrities. It “irks Ben and Erin that Chip and Jo feature their five children on TV, while they’re striving to give their 3-year-old daughter, Helen, a normal childhood,” the insider claimed. The insider even said the Napiers might be “tempted” to develop their own TV network.
However, Gossip Cop later debunked this report. “The ‘rivalry’ these ‘sources’ speak of is literally non-existent,” a representative for Joanna told the site. “Chip and Joanna adore Ben and Erin and have nothing but respect and admiration for the work that they do. They’re friends, actually, and any reports inferring otherwise are completely false. This is a non-story.”
Napier also assured fans there is no “bad blood” between the two stars. “This is dumb and not true @OKMagazine,” Napier wrote on her Instagram Story, alongside the GIF of Danny DeVito shaking his head. She also included a screenshot of the Gossip Cop report debunking the rumor. “Glad our first splashy tabloid fight us together,” Napier added, tagging Joanna and including a heart emoji.
The rumor surfaced while the Gaines are mounting a television comeback. The couple walked away from their successful Fixer Upper show to focus on their Magnolia business empire and raising their five children. However, HGTV wooed them back for Fixer Upper: Welcome Home, a new series on the discovery+ streaming platform.
The Magnolia Network launch has been delayed several times, but network president Allison Page told Variety it would launch digitally first on discovery+ on July 15. In January 2022, it will finally take over the linear DIY network. “Basically, COVID hit, and we quickly assessed and realized we were actually okay for Oct. 4, but we probably weren’t okay for Nov. 4, in that we’d shot one or two episodes and either paused [production] or completely stopped down,” Page explained. “And so it was getting the scale that we want and need to put forth a holistic experience that ultimately delayed us.”
