HGTV's Mina Starsiak Hawk Finally Opened Up About The End Of Good Bones & It Was Messy
Since it was announced that Season 8 would be the end of "Good Bones," HGTV fans have been speculating about why Mina Starsiak Hawk decided to leave the series behind. The program, which premiered in 2016, followed Starsiak Hawk and her mom, Karen E. Laine, as they revitalized houses in Indianapolis. In addition to the mother-daughter duo, "Good Bones" also saw relatives like Mina's brother, Tad Starsiak, join the cast, making the show a real family affair.
It was this family-heavy angle that in part led to the show's demise, with Starsiak Hawk opening up about how the "Good Bones" stars really get along off camera. The real estate expert also admitted that the behind-the-scenes stress of the show contributed to her departure, opening up about some of the final season's details on her podcast "Mina AF."
"The last two seasons were really, really hard emotionally and mentally. Financially and physically, as well," Starsiak Hawk said on the June 3 episode. "I think that's very hard for people to understand — how much I was in, like, a really bad place." While the HGTV show started off as a fun, family-filled venture, it soon turned out to be messier than Mina Starsiak Hawk expected.
Good Bones became too intense for Mina
On her podcast, Mina Starsiak Hawk talked about the stress she was experiencing during the final seasons of "Good Bones," explaining that the show's renovations had become bigger and more elaborate over time. While the "huge project[s] with "huge before and after[s]" made for good TV, they also weighed heavily on Starsiak Hawk.
"The weight was all on me at that point — the financial weight, the weight to hit the deadlines," she explained, emphasizing how high stakes everything felt in the final seasons. "It was all my money. It was my family's money. It was my business's success." This isn't the first time that the Indiana native has opened up about the behind-the-scenes intensity of the series, as she explained on the podcast episode titled "And That's A Wrap ... Or Is It?" that she felt overburdened by the show's pressures.
"I have felt responsible for so many people for so long," she admitted. "Whether it made sense or not, it felt like I was fighting for my life or, like, fighting for my family's life, fighting for my employees' lives. To figure something out, to find a solution, to find the next thing." Starsiak Hawk admitted that these feelings turned her into someone she didn't want to be, but that the closing of the show allowed her to reflect on her feelings and reorganize her life.
Starsiak Hawk revealed that relationships were strained
Stress was a big part of why "Good Bones" came to an end, with Mina Starsiak Hawk also falling into a difficult dynamic with her family. Specifically, the drama between Starsiak Hawk and Karen E. Laine became more apparent as the show wrapped up, with the young realtor admitting how tense things were in the final seasons. "There were definitely some challenging [moments] because my mom and I were in some of the most challenging places I felt we've been," she told People.
While Starsiak Hawk and her mom even had "a knockdown drag-out [fight]" during the filming of Season 8, the mother-daughter duo haven't been the only ones at odds. The real estate expert has had a tumultuous relationship with her brother, though little is known about what led to Mina's estrangement with Tad Starsiak. It's likely that the mounting pressure Starsiak Hawk felt throughout the final seasons of her HGTV show was in part due to her rough family fluctuations, especially as the business responsibilities had shifted to her over the years.
"What people saw on the show was this family business," she said on the March 4 episode of her podcast. "A lot of people didn't know that for the past handful of years, I'm the only one that's owned the company and none of them have worked for me." Starsiak Hawk went on to explain that her family members, like her mom and brother, were still employed by HGTV and helped out on the show, but that it was a situation that left the responsibility to her.