HGTV ‘Good Bones’ Star Mina Starsiak Hawk Gets Candid About Life With Her Family

Isaac Rouse October 17, 2023, 4:50 pm

Good Bones HGTV - Mina Starsiak and Karen Elaine — HGTV

Mina Starsiak Hawk is taking a moment to contemplate the rollercoaster ride she and her family have experienced over the eight seasons of their HGTV series.

During the most recent episode of her podcast, Mina AF, released just before the series finale of Good Bones on October 17, Starsiak Hawk shared a question from a listener: what she wished she had known through their enduring renovation show before attaining fame.

“I think I knew […] that this was going to be hard and it was going to challenge relationships because when you put anything under a spotlight, in a pressure cooker, there’s the opportunity to explode,” she shared. “And I myself am not stable enough to not explode at times.”

Starsiak Hawk also made a point to mention her “whole complicated family organization”; many members are involved in her business and in the creation of Good Bones, which includes several kinds of personalities and “people with so many different issues, weaknesses, things left to learn.”

HGTV 'Good Bones' Star Mina Starsiak Hawk Opens Up About Her Mental Health Issues

She noted, “I just wish I had known how bad it could be.”

The HGTV personality has been candid regarding her strained relationship with her mother and co-star, Karen E. Laine.

During the podcast, she elaborated on the challenges she had faced with her mother even before the show began. However, they had managed to overcome those hurdles in the past, leaving her with the belief that if “we made it through all that, we can make it through this.”

“[I was] naive to think that these people who came along and were part of this with me and supported me while I gave them an opportunity along the way would always feel the value of that opportunity,” she continued. “It’s just really hard being on the other side and feeling like some of the people that have been part of this feel like they are where they are today, with the opportunities they have today, in spite of me, not, in part, because of an opportunity that was provided. And that’s just kind of hard.”

Check out the full episode below.

Starsiak Hawk co-founded her Indianapolis-based company, Two Chicks and a Hammer, with Laine in 2007. In 2019, Laine reduced her involvement in the company but still made appearances on the show alongside her daughter and their team.

The star expressed that she wishes she had realized how mentally and emotionally challenging the situation would be while also emphasizing her continued passion for television and her positive relationship with HGTV.

“I think being so young [when the show started], not having the understanding even enough to know what boundaries I needed to set, is what I would say is something I wish I had known,” she continued. “That you need to be firm and understand your boundaries from the very beginning because it’s really hard to change. It’s hard to go back.”

Over the past year or so, Hawk had a falling out with her mom and brothers. HGTV also announced earlier this year that Good Bones‘ eighth season would be the show’s last. She also has difficult relationships with other members of her family. Speaking on her podcast on Tuesday, October 10, Hawk said she hasn’t spoken to her mother in at least a year, revealing their “last communication” was in a series of emails.