'Rehab Addict' star Nicole Curtis regrets sacrificing ‘quality time with family’ to 'chase money'

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Nicole Curtis reflected on how her priorities have changed since rising to fame 14 years ago with the success of her HGTV show "Rehab Addict."

During an interview with Fox News Digital, Curtis, who is making her television comeback after forming her own production company, shared the advice that she would give her younger self.

"The best advice is they can all wait. Your children can't," said Curtis, who shares youngest son Harper, 9, with Shane Maguire. She welcomed her first child, son Ethan 26, with her ex Steven Cimini in 1997.

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Nicole Curtis shared her regrets over sacrificing time with her family to focus on her career. (Discovery+)

She continued, "When we were first shooting the show, my son was in sixth grade. And I wasn't chasing fame. I know there are a lot of influencers now and everything that – they just want their face on camera. They want a TV show. They want to do that." 

"And I just wanted to live comfortably," Curtis explained. "I wanted to give my son a life that he could enjoy things in life without seeing me struggle. And I was a house cleaner and I was a real estate agent. I was selling s--- on Craigslist."

Curtis told Fox News Digital that she felt she "put the show first" at times because she focused on maintaining financial stability for her family.

Curtis is mother to sons Ethan and Harper. (Nicole Curtis Instagram)

"I was chasing the money," she admitted. "I was chasing that money hard because I wanted a better life for us. And there were moments when – I'll be honest – when I definitely thought maybe this would have been better if I was still cleaning houses because I did sacrifice quality time with a family in those early years." 

"And that's something I will not do this time," Curtis asserted. "I don't care what it is. You cannot put a check in front of me that is going to take time away from my family. So I think that's absolutely the thing I would tell my younger self is that, you know what – you'll figure it out. You'll figure it out. And I did."

"If I could get those years back, I would trade everything in a heartbeat."

— Nicole Curtis

Curtis recalled that her mindset about her need to be "chasing money" changed after a conversation with her late grandfather. 

The home renovation star rose to fame 14 years ago with her show "Rehab Addict." (Bruce Bisping/Star Tribune via Getty Images)

"He said to me one day, he said, 'Nicky, you know what? As soon as you make enough to where you don't need that money, don't chase it anymore. You don't need it. Why are you chasing it?' And that's been a huge lesson learned for me," she remembered.

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"I am not the richest, wealthiest, savviest financial person in the world by any means. But I'm doing well enough to where I'm OK right now," Curtis said.

"And there were years where I wasn't OK," she recalled. "I can tell you every single house I ever cleaned, and I did those floors on my hands and knees because I needed to pay the mortgage, I needed to put gas in my car, but I will never sacrifice again for that, for a check. I don't need that. I don't need that much to survive."

"That's definitely the thing. And if I could get those years back, I would trade everything in a heartbeat."

Curtis founded her own production company three years ago. (Discovery+)

Curtis has previously spoken out about how Ethan, who frequently appeared on "Rehab Addict," grew up on her construction sites while she was building her career and had a "different kind of childhood."

When Curtis welcomed Harper in 2015, she decided to take a different approach and kept her youngest out of the spotlight. 

Ethan made an appearance on the premiere episode of "Rehab Addict Rescue," the 2021 "Rehab Addict" spinoff series, during which he expressed his admiration for his mother.

"She's worked to the bone to get what she has," Ethan said, noting that he "absolutely" appreciated it.

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While speaking with Fox News Digital, Curtis shared that finding a balance between her work and her family life was one of the factors that motivated her to found her own production company. 

Curtis said that she prefers serving as a producer over appearing as on-air talent. (Bruce Bisping/Star Tribune via Getty Images)

The TV personality had worked with other production companies while producing her previous reality shows. However, Curtis explained that she reached a point where she felt that she was "doing all the heavy lifting."

"As the years progressed, I'm in this position where I ran my show," she said. "I directed my show. I bought the properties. I designed the properties. I hired the crews and I worked with them. And I did all this and still having to share that space with another production company – it really got to be where, ‘Why do I want to do this anymore?’"

"That would be like having somebody else come into my construction sites and then take credit for running my construction sites," Curtis explained. "So that's where I was finally like, 'Ok, I'm already doing the heavy lifting.'" 

"So now I'm going to do all the heavy lifting and we're going to run it the way that I need it to run so that it works properly for my life and my family."

Nicole Curtis said that if she couldn't work as a producer, she had no interest in doing television. (Paul Marotta/Getty Images for Cost Plus World Market)

Curtis shared that the process of forming her own production company has been challenging, but she learned a lot from her years of experience in television as well as her role in running the construction sites of the houses featured on her previous shows. 

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"I think anyone who's ever worked on my crew or been to one of my sites knows that it's 100% a construction site and a little bit of TV," Curtis said. "And that's really what we always want to see come across on TV because otherwise it's no fun. It's no fun for me, to be honest. So that was the most important thing for me to just finally take the reins."

"And, you know, to be honest, I really sat and I was like, 'Hey, if this isn't going to work with me taking the reins and starting my own company and doing this, then I don't need to do TV anymore.'"

Nicole Curtis said she had to fight to be seen as a capable producer. (Bruce Bisping/Star Tribune via Getty Images)

Curtis explained that she felt she had to prove herself as a producer to network executives after making her name as a TV host. 

"I think a lot of people have this misconception because I'm a known brand – I'm a known entity – that I can just walk into any network and be like, ‘Hey, I want to sell you a new show today,’" she said.

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"They didn't see me as a producer," Curtis continued. "They saw me as an on-air talent, and it took three years of really putting my money where my mouth was to be like, 'No, I'm more producer than talent.' And honestly, I'd prefer to be that. I don't really enjoy on-camera."

"And it's just been such a cool experience for me," she added. "I wouldn't have it any other way, you know? And trust me, I was offered many different solutions just to stay on TV if I didn't go this route and I didn't want to do it. I wanted to be in control of my own destiny."

Nicole Curtis seen filming a 2010 episode of "Rehab Addict." (Bruce Bisping/Star Tribune via Getty Images)

The businesswoman admitted that the process of making her TV comeback through her own production has been "ugly," explaining that she has mostly self-funded her new episodes.

"Making television shows is not a cheap process," Curtis noted. "And that's why I joke on my social media that you swing and if you don't make it, these are some really expensive home movies for our family. But I think that's the hardest one for me. I haven't sweated like this in a long time."

She continued, "When you're filming, and you don't know where this is going to get sold, it's a lot. Just like my houses, I don't finance anything. You know, it's all cash money. 

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"So I think that's been the hardest thing for me is that I'm like, ‘Oh, wow, I’m in this position again,'" Curtis added. "But struggle is nothing new for me."

Nicole Curtis said she originally built her business as a house cleaner. (Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images)

"I was an up-and-coming house cleaner in the suburbs of Detroit. That's where I built my business and I had a little house cleaning business. And I took every dime I made and I put it into real estate. So it was kind of like a refresher course on what it used to be. And I get to tell you, the feeling is amazing to be on my sites and know that everything is 100% mine. You can't put a price tag on that."

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While speaking with Fox News Digital, Curtis teased what her fans can look forward to when she debuts her self-produced episodes.

"I just decided to throw caution to the wind," she said with a laugh. "If I was going to start a new production company – I did something crazy. I bought a house in a little city that I've never been to, never seen. And it was just always on this bucket list of mine."

Nicole Curtis completed a bucket list item after starting her production company. (Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)

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Curtis continued, "And I'm a real estate person in the morning and evening and in the nighttime I dream it. And I kept looking at these listings for this tiny little town. And I was just in a mood one day and I really did say, 'F--- it, I'm just buying this house.' And I did it."

"I was in Paris and I flew from Paris to New York to Salt Lake City, drove to the house and was like, 'Well, here we are. We're just going to do this house.' And that's what I felt for these episodes. And it's been one of those moments where I'm like, I can't believe I did that. But damn, that was fun."