HGTV Star Nicole Curtis Slams Claims She Was Arrested After Fake Mug Shot Circulated Online

HGTV star Nicole Curtis has fired back at critics who shared false claims that she was arrested—while circulating a fake news video that alleged she had been in trouble with the law.

The "Rehab Addict" star, 49, took to her Instagram Story to tease trolls who shared fake rumors that she had been taken into custody after stepping away from the HGTV show.

Curtis shared a screenshot of the video that first sparked the rumor, revealing a mug shot of a blond woman that she insisted was not her.

"This is not me," the renovation expert wrote alongside the screenshot.

The false clip, which is titled “What Really Happened to Nicole Curtis from 'Rehab Addict,'” featured a series of photos of Curtis, including several taken from her hit show.

The clip comes months after Curtis returned to TV screens after taking a lengthy three-year break that was sparked by a major personal "setback that rocked" her to her "core."

The "Rehab Addict" star, whose popular show premiered in 2010, opened up about the "devastating" decision to step back from her filming obligations to focus on her personal well-being, explaining to People how she slowly found her way back to her love of home projects.

Curtis, who hails from Detroit, did not reveal details about the "setback" that led to her disappearance from screens. However, she did lay bare the ways in which she went about getting her life back on track—a journey that she credited to her faith and her newfound fondness for travel.

"I had a setback in my life that just rocked me to the core, and it was one of those moments where I thought, 'How do I get through this one?'” she said.

“I prayed on it, and it was just devastating for me. I had to make a decision right there and then, like, ‘OK, we're going to let this affect us for a very long time, or we're going to pick it up and go,'" she added.

She reflected on a July 2022 evening when she spontaneously decided to travel to the Greek island of Corfu, only to face disaster before she'd even arrived.

Curtis hopped on a plane to Paris, with plans of spending her one-day layover shopping in the French city.

However, just moments after the plane took off, she realized she had forgotten her wallet.

“I didn't realize until I was up in the air paying for my Wi-Fi that I left my wallet behind. I didn't have a credit card on me. I had $72 of change in dollar bills stashed in my bag. So I landed in Paris without a wallet. I thought, well, you know what? This is it. This is my test. I'm going to figure it out," she told the outlet.

Thankfully, a friend was able to transfer some money to the HGTV star.

“It was so crazy that I was like, ‘This was a sign,’ and I made it through,” she revealed. She still made sure to have fun in Europe by running around the Eiffel Tower.

And with some more time than she imagined on her hands, the TV personality decided to buy a property in Wyoming to flip—without ever seeing the home in real life.

She snapped up the home before even returning to the U.S., she explained.

"I was like, ‘OK, what am I doing?’ I went out that night, I bought a house online 'cause I was like, ‘I'm going to knock off all my wish lists tonight. We're doing it,'” she said.

Although things were initially looking up, they soon spiraled when Curtis accidentally overslept and missed her connecting flight from Paris to Corfu.

She noted that she was "either going to get stuck in Paris for the next week" or go home.

“All the flights were sold out, and this kind woman on the Delta help line was like, ‘I can get you from JFK to Salt Lake City, then you can drive to Wyoming.’ I said, ‘That's what I'm going to do.’ And that's what I did," she revealed.

When she arrived in Utah, the same friend who had loaned her money while in Paris also shipped Curtis her wallet.

The HGTV star then went straight to her Wyoming fixer-upper, where she quickly set about pouring all of her energy into the project.

“This house needed me, and I needed this house,” she said.

The ninth season of "Rehab Addict," which hit screens on June 24, sees Curtis restoring that same Wyoming abode, as well as a damaged Detroit dwelling that was invaded by squatters.

She branded the new episodes an "evolved version" of herself.

“I'm no longer this little poor mommy in Minneapolis driving around with this pickup truck with two dogs and a kid, but I'm still me. I'm still Nicole Curtis from Detroit, and I want you to save that building, and we're going to do it," she explained.

When speaking about the upcoming season, she gushed, “Everyone will be so excited, because you see a lot of familiar faces. All the guys on my crew that [viewers have] loved over the years, they're back. We've all stayed friends, and they're here.”

She noted that "old school" fans will appreciate the nostalgic touches.

“This season has the feel of Season 1, Season 2. The houses are smaller. We've done a lot of big projects over the years, and my lake house ... that was like a bougie series," she added.

"I'm building my million-dollar lake house. I was still saving an old house, but it wasn't ‘Nicole Curtis on the brink of bankruptcy’ if this one doesn't sell, like the old-school ones."

Curtis—who shares children Ethan, whom she welcomed in 1997, with ex Steven Cimini, and Harper, born in 2015, whom she shares with ex Shane Maguire—noted that this season would not see her children partaking, revealing that she was going to keep much of her life private going forward.