The Legal Drama That Tarnished HGTV Star Nicole Curtis' Reputation

In a world dominated by duos, Nicole Curtis paved her own path from being a single mom in Detroit to becoming a star by hosting the hit HGTV series "Rehab Addict" solo.  Not only did she host the series and show off her skills when it comes to every aspect of building, fixing, and selling homes, but she also controls every part of the process, explaining to Rug News, "I own the construction company; I own the houses I remodel. I build the house and sell the house." But a 2025 lawsuit suggests that while the design expert was great at fixing homes, she may not have been as good about paying the people who worked with her. Curtis initially walked away from her hit show in 2018, telling People, "I had a setback in my life that just rocked me to the core" without going deeper into the matter. But Curtis' history and shocking family drama suggest that it was her custody battle with her ex that made her step away from the spotlight. 

Then, in 2025, Curtis returned to "Rehab Addict" for a ninth season, despite being open about her less-than-fond memories of working on the series. But at a time when Curtis should have been celebrating their return to HGTV, she was hit with a lawsuit from someone who worked on the show. As revealed by the Sun, Jordan Garland, claiming to be Curtis' business partner, filed a lawsuit against Curtis for $25,000 of unpaid work in February 2025. Per the records that the Sun obtained, Jordan was hired to shoot scenes, pilot a drone, edit footage, and create graphics, among other tasks. And while an initial payment was made, Jordan claimed that "Defendants refused to discuss compensation and threatened [Jordan] with criminal prosecution." 

Nicole Curtis responded to the complaint in May of 2025, requesting that it be dismissed. According to Curtis, Jordan Garland was not her business partner but was hired as an independent contractor and had been paid $36,750 for his work on the show. Curtis further explained that Garland was withholding video property that belonged to her and had refused to discuss further compensation. 

On July 11, 2025, two weeks after the lawsuit was exclusively revealed by the Sun, Curtis took to Instagram to announce that the "Rehab Addict" would be going on hiatus after airing just two episodes of the new season. In her post, Curtis didn't mention the lawsuit, and said that "It's just a lot of hours to get a show on air and we (my family +me) thought -why are we giving up Summer when we have the ability to do this in the Fall?" The lawsuit, according to the Sun, had to do with the new season, with Jordan Garland's complaint surrounding work he did for the first episode of the show's return. In October of the same year, per the Sun, the case was dismissed, as Curtis had requested. On February 8, 2026, with the lawsuit cleared up, Curtis once again took to Instagram to announce that the remaining episodes of "Rehab Addict" would begin airing, saying that she "was told now or never -so you get them now."