Earlier this month, HGTV star Hilary Farr revealed she will be leaving her long-running home design show Love It or List It after 19 seasons, where she co-hosted with real estate agent David Visentin.
“Love It or List It has had such a true impact on so many lives, including mine,” Farr said in a statement at the time. “But now it’s time for me to embrace new challenges that have come my way. If this is my legacy, it’s a great one.”
In a new interview with Vulture, Farr opened up about her decision to leave the hit show, explaining, “It was becoming boring… and I don’t want to be bored.”
“You know that saying, “If not now, when?” That’s truly it,” the British-Canadian businesswoman continued. “I’ve been doing the show for years, and I have loved doing it. But in the last season, which we did in Canada, it just felt too much like work. It felt very stale. It’s a very formulaic show.”
The show, which debuted back in 2008, sees Farr and Visentin facing off to win over clients who are undecided between renovating their current homes or moving to a new one. Farr would try to fix up the homes, while Visentin would tempt them with brand-new abodes.
After appearing in over 250 episodes, Farr said it was time to say goodbye, noting that the pandemic also played a significant part in her decision.
“Off-screen, there are challenges, and that’s another part of all of this, because the pandemic played a huge part in my decision,” she shared.
“We were in the middle of filming Love It or List It in Raleigh, North Carolina, where I am right now, when suddenly the pandemic hit,” she added. “And because I’m actually based in Canada, we were getting these alerts that said, “If you don’t come now, you may never be able to get back into the country.” Suddenly I was in Armageddon.”
“I was bouncing back and forth, and in between that I couldn’t get to Canada because of the pandemic. It was an extraordinarily stressful time,” Farr stated.
Farr also hosts the HGTV show Tough Love, which she said has taken precedence over Love It or List It due to being more personal.
“Doing [Love It or List It] and Tough Love back-to-back, I realized how much more meaningful the latter was to me because it was much more personal and driven by a true need,” she said. “There was no competitiveness in it, there was no aggression or contentiousness.”
She continued, “That kind of show doesn’t always bring the best out in people, just by virtue of what it is. I’ve always loved working with David and the actual work was great, but… behind the scenes, the design, the difficulty, the supply-line issues, the delays… everybody was stressed, and it just felt different. It was taking up too much of my life and it was boring.”
Despite leaving Love It Or List It, Farr said she still wants to do Tough Love, “and I have all sorts of irons in the fire on other projects. I just need to do them on my terms.”
