Tragic Events HGTV's Ben & Erin Napier Have Lived Through With Their Family

Throughout the seasons of their show "Home Town," Ben and Erin Napier have charmed audiences as they work to revitalize the homes in their local community. They've been so successful that HGTV expanded this idea into a second series, "Home Town Takeover," where the Napiers transfer their skills to other localities. On screen and off, Ben and Erin have had plenty of cute couple moments. Ever since they became college sweethearts in 2004, the Napiers commemorate their romantic beginnings with a celebration called "Love Week." The couple also had an extraordinary stroke of luck when they were approached out of the blue by an HGTV exec who offered them their own TV series.

Good fortune aside, like anyone else, the Napiers have also experienced their share of hard times. For instance, in February 2024, Ben's 1987 Chevrolet Blazer was stolen. Hoping to get a lead on the theft, Ben shared photos of the vehicle along with security footage stills documenting the incident on social media. To make matters more stressful, all but one of the Napiers were sick with COVID-19 around this same time. Happily, the matter was resolved when the Blazer was located four days later . The perpetrator was found guilty of stealing three additional vehicles. It was a close call for the Napiers, however, since one of the stolen vehicles was sold for scrap. Besides stolen property, here are some other difficulties the Napier family has weathered together.

From 2004 to 2014, Erin Napier suffered from a perforated appendix. During that time, she experienced debilitating, intermittent stomach pain. The condition proved difficult to diagnose, and Erin struggled with the emotional turmoil of not having answers. Eventually, doctors discovered the problem, and she received surgery to remove her appendix along with additional scar tissue that had developed over a decade. After this health issue was finally resolved, medical professionals expressed concern that it might impact her ability to maintain a pregnancy. "I was very sad," Erin recalled to People in October 2018. "I like to have proof. And we had no proof that I would be able to have kids."

Besides this uncertainty, Erin struggled with feelings of trepidation about pregnancy and childbirth. On Mother's Day 2017, Erin discovered she was pregnant. "I was surprised by the overwhelming relief I felt," she wrote in her blog. "It was like pushing a car up a hill all this time, my anxiety about when, when, when I would finally be brave enough." Erin and Ben Napier's first child, Helen, was born in January 2018. Their second child, Mae, was born in May 2021. 

Unfortunately, the trauma that Erin experienced from her appendix is still part of her life. In January 2022, Erin explained that she had panic attacks and anxiety about illness. It's also made her empathetic towards people dealing with fertility issues, and she's spoken out against probing into their privacy.

Even through Erin Napier finally got relief from her appendix problem in 2014, it wasn't the only medical difficulty her family experienced. That same year, Ben Napier's dad needed emergency bypass surgery. In addition to being a traumatic experience for Ben's mom and siblings, it was also terrifying for Erin. This experience, combined with the fact that Ben was genetically predisposed to heart disease, caused Erin to have a recurrent, upsetting dream in which Ben was diagnosed with a heart problem and given only a short time to live. "And then I wake up. Completely a wreck," Erin explained, after recounting the nightmare in her blog.

To put their minds at ease, Ben got proactive about his health. He underwent preventative screening and made physical activity a priority. He was even more motivated after becoming a parent. "Having Helen made me want to be healthier so I could be around a lot longer and see her grow up and see her whole life," Ben informed Country Living in 2019. At that point, he had lost 55 pounds as a result of his lifestyle changes. His transformation has been so significant that it led some individuals to falsely accuse Ben of using and selling keto supplements to alter his physique. Instead, Ben had been using a variety of exercise equipment in a home gym that he designed in the family's barn.

Just before Christmas 2019, a tornado hit Laurel, Mississippi. Erin, Ben, and Helen Napier took shelter in a closet beneath their home's stairwell. "You don't want to hear your house move and creak and pop," Erin later told Southern Living's "Biscuits and Jam" podcast. "We could hear glass breaking." However, Erin felt confident that they would survive the scary tornado hitting the Napier's home. Luckily, damage to the house was limited to broken windows. "It was scary. It was a close call," Erin explained on the podcast. Helen, who was nearly two years old and didn't understand about tornados, was afraid of thunder for a while afterwards.

While this storm was an EF-3, months later, in April 2020, an EF-4 storm caused additional, significant damage to the area. Although the Napiers' home was unscathed the second time, they were saddened by other losses in their community. To help Laurel recover, Erin and Ben developed a "Hometown Strong" print as a fundraiser.  "We were able, through the sales of that print, able to buy thousands of meals and clean-up kits," Erin informed "Tamron Hall."

The couple also lent their skills to helping their town recover from the tornados, including rebuilding a home that they had previously renovated.  In addition, Erin and Ben used their knowledge to prepare for future storms. In December 2023, they added indoor swings and comfy couches to their basement so their daughters could play while sheltering from future tornados.

In May 2021, Ben Napier's neighbors alerted him to a potential safety concern involving a new resident and their daughter Helen Napier. John Gaffney was spotted traversing the area in costume with an ankle monitor and brandishing a water gun. Beyond this unusual appearance, however, it was his behavior that was even more concerning. "He had bought a house a block from ours and was living in it with nothing but a suitcase and these toys for when my 3-year-old daughter 'comes over to visit,'" Erin Napier recalled on Instagram a year later. Gaffney had come to the area with the specific intention of having the Napiers design a home for him. 

At the time, Erin was pregnant with the couple's second child, Mae, who was weeks away from being born. The Napiers quickly took action by employing security personnel to look after their family. Although, they didn't explain the worrying reason for the security's presence to young Helen. In addition, the Napiers and another couple obtained a court-issued restraining order.

Fortunately, the incident was resolved and no one was harmed. Gaffney had already been facing criminal charges in California, and he was required to return there. However, it left a lasting impression on Erin. "A year on, I still think of this thing every day but it doesn't scare me anymore," she admitted in her post recounting the experience.

Although Erin Napier's Instagram account was the catalyst for their careers as HGTV stars, she and Ben have had to deal with repeated instances of online scorn as a result of their fame. In a January 2018 Instagram post, Erin observed, "the world might improve once we see that online cruelty isn't brave or victimless at all."

She revisited the topic in July 2020, remarking that she'd be turning off the comments. However, it seems Erin didn't do this on every post. She expressed frustration five months later in response to a post that included her daughter. The couple doesn't show the child's face to protect her privacy. It didn't deter followers from making what Erin described as "cruel comments" about the preschooler's hair and the Napiers' approach to safety protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic. The negative comments prompted Erin to "immediately" remove the photo. 

Unfortunately, research shows that mean-spirited comments will continue to occur since users don't witness the consequences of their words, and negative behaviors have a tendency to proliferate. To this end, Erin and Ben are dedicated to speaking out and encouraging people to behave more positively. "Anytime someone is cruel on social media, I feel like the adult thing to do is to respond to that the way an adult should respond to that," Erin explained to Yahoo Life.