Tragic Details About HGTV's Ty Pennington

HGTV star Ty Pennington is known for his upbeat, chipper demeanor, but life hasn't always been easy for the handyman who's helped hundreds of families improve their homes. The "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," "Ty Breaker," and "Rock The Block" host has faced some tragic hurdles in his life, including family strife. 

Pennington has been open about his early family life, admitting in his 2019 memoir "Life to the Extreme: How a Chaotic Kid Became America's Favorite Carpenter," that "it's safe to say my family isn't built on a strong foundation, but rather contains lots of cracks and fault lines from the very beginning." The star elaborated on his family dynamics further on Instagram in January 2019 when he shared a throwback photo from a family dinner, which appeared to show him as a teenager. He captioned it "Last Supper" and suggested via hashtags that he was thrown out of the house after (though he didn't share why). But that tumultuous start no doubt taught Pennington some important life skills. "Sometimes when a foundation is crumbling, you need to be able to move that home to another location. It isn't easy, but it's often worth the trouble," he wrote in his book.

That's hardly the only stumbling block Pennington has experienced, though. From serious health issues to struggling through school, this quirky extrovert has faced some very difficult times.

Unfortunately, Ty Pennington has never had a close relationship with his dad Gary Burton. Pennington opened up about their tumultuous family ties in "Life to the Extreme: How a Chaotic Kid Became America's Favorite Carpenter," sharing he didn't even properly meet his dad until he was 5 years old. A decade later, Pennington visited his father in an attempt to build a relationship but was left disappointed after he asked him for money. "I look at my father behind the wheel of the parked car and wonder if he's joking. I'm thinking, 'Are you kidding? I'm 15. I mow lawns,'" the HGTV shared. "But I just nod and tell him sure and give him the $5. When he climbs back in the car a few minutes later, he's holding a can of beer."

Thankfully, Pennington grew up with a more stable role model in his life. He seemingly had a better relationship with his stepfather, and Pennington even changed his name to reflect that. Pennington was born Gary Tygert Burton Jr. but chose to go by shortened middle name and the surname of his stepdad, Nick Pennington.

In July 2023, Ty Pennington had to undergo emergency surgery after developing an abscess in his throat. The star wrote about the scary health ordeal on Instagram, sharing he thought he just had a sore throat until he woke up in the middle of the night struggling to breathe. "Next thing I know, I was intubated and flown to the ICU in Denver. Wednesday I had surgery and yesterday afternoon I was released from the ICU," he captioned a series of photos, including snaps showing him in a hospital bed.

But while the ordeal was no doubt terrifying at the time, Pennington made a full recovery and even joked about the situation to ET in March 2024. "I'm great. You know what's great is if you almost die, you get so much attention. It feels so nice to be that loved," he teased. "I'm planning another one... No, I'm kidding!" Pennington also shared how the incident changed his outlook on life, admitting, "You just don't know when your timecard's gonna get pulled, so wake up, live every single day to the fullest."

Ty Pennington's emergency throat surgery unfortunately wasn't the only time he'd been rushed to the hospital. Before Pennington found fame, he had a promising modeling career in front of him — until a tragic accident when he was 27 years old changed things forever. He explained on Jen Hatmaker's "For The Love" podcast in December 2018 that he was driving with a friend when their Jeep rolled over, throwing him from the vehicle. "I lost all the skin on my back and my shoulders and my head," he recalled. "I'm literally leaving my body in a hospital room on morphine because they're having to scrub the gravel out of my skin." 

Pennington elaborated on the incident to People in February 2023. "My modeling career was about to take off, but all of a sudden I had stitches in my head and all kinds of stuff, and scar tissue that had to grow back," he said.

Pennington also addressed the serious accident on Instagram the month prior, sharing that he'd just shot the cover of a J.Crew catalog when he got injured. "Somehow, I survived... my buttocks sadly did not," he wrote in the caption alongside the original J. Crew photo and a new shot of him recreating the pose. "The staples and stitches couldn't revive my newfound 'Body of Work' in [modeling]," he added. And, just like that, Pennington's modeling career was over.

Even Ty Pennington isn't immune to cruel, body-shaming trolls. The "Rock The Block" star posted a heartfelt message on Instagram in February 2022 after being bullied for a shirtless black-and-white video he'd posted a few days earlier that was meant to be humorous. "Comments like 'disgusting,' 'gross,' 'omg he's so old now,' 'grandpa,' 'he got fat' (which btw I'm pushing my stomach out but ok)," he wrote in the caption. 

"There has been such a force behind accepting all shapes and sizes and aging in the female community which is AWESOME (keep it coming) but maybe let's give that same grace to men?" he continued, revealing he's been subjected to nasty comments on social media every day. The star concluded his lengthy but important caption by letting the trolls know how hurt he felt, noting, "I'm human and I have feelings." He shared the sentiment alongside a defiant black-and-white shirtless photo.

Pennington previously shared his strong stance against bullying on X, formerly known as Twitter, in January 2019. "Bullying is never ok. from near or far, or from behind a screen. never. support & lift each other up. always," he wrote. "If you can't say anything nice, then just smile. if you can't type, retweet, or emoji anything nice, then sit on your hands." And we have to agree.

Ty Pennington has been open about the fact he wasn't exactly an A+ student. The TV personality was officially diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder when he was 17 years old, but struggled with his education long before he knew exactly why. Pennington told Ability Magazine he spent most of his school days being reprimanded in detention or sent out of the classroom because he couldn't focus. "I swung to the blinds, I climbed out the windows, I ran around naked, I slapped Johnny in the back of the head. So I was what you call 'a classic distraction,'" he shared. And because he spent so little time in class, he wasn't learning. "It just didn't sink in," he shared. "School was probably one of the most difficult things." Things were so bad that he attended seven different schools.

Pennington told People in May 2022 that he felt he'd lost out on an education because of his ADHD, but he'd managed to overcome a lot of his symptoms by developing his carpentry abilities. "Every person out there with ADHD has a hidden talent that they must find because it's the confidence that you can gain from that [discovery] that's life-changing," he said.