The popular mother-daughter home renovation team from HGTV's Good Bones, Karen E. Laine and Mina Starsiak Hawk, are finally rebuilding their strained relationship. This follows a very public falling out that played out over recent years, casting a shadow over their successful television partnership.
From Screen Partners to Strained Relations
Starsiak Hawk has now revealed to People magazine that she and her mother are in a significantly better place, more than two years after their conflict first became known to the public. The duo, who captivated audiences for eight seasons of their house-flipping show from 2016 to 2023, found their personal bond severely tested by the pressures of fame and family business.
"It took us a lot of time to get [to a bad place in our relationship], so I think it takes a lot of time to kind of get out of it as well," Starsiak Hawk explained candidly. She noted that while the family was together for the holidays and things are now amicable, they are not exceptionally close. "We're not like best friends that braid each other's hair on Saturday nights or anything, but it's good," she shared.
The Pressure Cooker of Reality TV
The tensions came to a head during the filming of the show's final season. Starsiak Hawk recalled a particularly intense 'knockdown drag-out' fight during the season premiere, though she and her mother worked hard to keep their professional composure on screen. "I was like, 'I wonder if anyone's going to be able to tell.' And of course, you can't because that's the idea," she said, acknowledging that viewers tuned in for renovation inspiration, not family drama.
Their professional journey began when they founded the Indianapolis-based company Two Chicks and a Hammer in 2007. Laine stepped back from the company in 2019 but remained on the show until its conclusion in October 2023. Reflecting on the experience, Starsiak Hawk admitted on her podcast, Mina AF, that she knew working with family on TV would be challenging. "I just wish I had known how bad it could be," she confessed.
Looking to the Future
Despite the show ending, the pair returned for a three-episode spinoff in August 2024, working on separate projects in different states. Meanwhile, Mina Starsiak Hawk is set for a television comeback, having been announced as a competitor on the upcoming seventh season of HGTV's Rock the Block, where she will partner with retired NFL star Vernon Davis.
This journey from a successful business and TV partnership, through a painful public rift, to a cautious reconciliation highlights the complex dynamics that can arise when family and fame become inextricably linked. For fans of Good Bones, the news offers hope that the foundational bond between this iconic mother-daughter duo remains, even if it has been permanently altered by their shared experience in the spotlight.
