Why Hilary Farr Left Love It Or List It & What She's Doing Now

HGTV's "Love It or List It" reached its 20th season on the network, but there's one thing missing starting that season: Hilary Farr. The home design expert has stepped away from the show that made her a household name. HGTV tried to fill the Farr-shaped hole with a new host, naming Page Turner to co-host the series with realtor and "Love It or List It" veteran David Visentin.

Turner, known for her appearances in HGTV shows like "Rock the Block," "House Hunters: All-Stars," and "Fix My Flip," has big shoes to fill when it comes to hosting the series — a job that Farr did for 19 seasons. After a bitter divorce in 2008, Farr directed her anger toward obtaining one goal: starring in "Love It or List It." "'Love It or List It' is a metaphor for all of us," she told Notable Life in 2013, adding that she felt her emotional state fueled her on in her audition. "It's about challenges in the home and rebuilding houses, careers, and families." She asserted that "turning ugly into beautiful, and a mess into a sanctuary" is one way to deal with life's curveballs. The beauty of the show, however, wasn't enough for Farr to continue after nearly two decades, so she said good-bye to the show. Now, the reality host is on to bigger and better things.

For over 250 episodes, Hilary Farr was the face of reality home improvement shows. The "Love It or List It" series originally debuted in Canada before accumulating a high viewership in the United States. The premise was simple: guest couples would have to decide if they would work with Farr to renovate their home with unique design choices to improve their environment, or simply move on and put their house on the market with Farr's co-host and real-estate expert David Visentin. The competitive dynamic of the show, as well as Farr's distinctly snippy British accent, proved to be a success on HGTV.

For Farr, she never got used to her fame. In September 2023, she took to Instagram to share the surreality of watching herself on the television in what appears to be an office waiting room. "Always weird to see myself on the telly — hear myself in real time, watch people in the waiting room doing a double take and going ... whaaaat!???" she wrote in the caption.

The truth about "Love It or List It" is that it only got more popular as the show progressed. The 201st episode had a whopping 3.4 million viewers — one might have even been Hillary Clinton since she has confessed it is one of her favorite shows. However, the success and fame from the series weren't enough for Farr to do another 19 seasons.

In 2023, Hilary Farr broke millions of HGTV fans' hearts when she announced that she would be leaving "Love It or List It." On her reason for her exit, she told Vulture, "It was becoming boring, and I don't want to be bored." She felt that if she didn't leave at that moment, she would never leave. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, shooting the series became incredibly difficult for the star; she was flipping back and forth between Toronto, Canada, and Raleigh, North Carolina. By the next season, the designer thought it was time to move on — and she didn't hold back on ridiculing the show that gave her syndicated fame. "It felt very stale. It's a very formulaic show," she admitted to the outlet.

Though, she didn't leave without expressing a bit of gratitude toward her job. "It's got me through hard times. It's got the audiences through hard times. It has evolved into a mainstay of people's lives and it's been incredibly gratifying," she told People. "But now it's time for me to move on and meet new challenges." Before that, she had one major person to say goodbye to: her co-host David Visentin.

Hilary Farr and David Visentin have been together from the start — literally. The pair met while auditioning for "Love It or List It" back in the '00s — their platonic meet-cute is a bit of a he said/she said story. "I was volunteering at a soup kitchen and she came in — I guess she was hungry," Visentin joked to TV Insider, giving fans a glimpse into their teasing dynamic. In reality, the pair were chosen to read together at auditions, and while Visentin remembers them hitting it off, Farr was bargaining for a spot next to a different realtor. "I had my eye on a tall, dark-haired guy with blue eyes, but David beat the competition, and the rest is history," said Farr.

Their amazing chemistry lured millions of viewers, many of whom thought Farr and Visentin were a couple at some point or another. When Visentin heard the news of Farr's retirement from the show, he didn't believe it. "He didn't believe me," Farr told People. "He said, 'Oh, you say that.'" They are as close off-screen as they are on — Visenton proved to be a reliable friend throughout Farr's battle with breast cancer. "He had his little rough patches too here and there, and we were there for each other," said Farr. "Yeah, that's a biggie. I don't know that that's going to change."

Fortunately, Hilary Farr won't be leaving the air for good. The fan-favorite interior designer has another television project on her plate; this time she's soloing it. Farr began hosting the HGTV series "Tough Love with Hilary Farr" in 2021 — as of this writing, the show has had two seasons. The series follows Farr in her efforts to transform families' dysfunctional homes into chic spaces of their dreams. Some of the renovations have even brought her to tears.

Her hosting abilities are no longer based on her competitive nature. In a sense, Farr acts as a life coach in "Tough Love" to uncover the reason why each family has a chaotic household. "It's all about fixing the function," Farr told Entertainment Tonight. "Because the four walls could be as perfect as this, but if it's not working with the dynamic of the family, we've got to figure out why is that and what is it that's missing that's going to be the glue that is going to make this happen." As of this writing, there has been no clear sign that Farr is coming back for a Season 3, but the timeframe between Season 1 and Season 2 indicates that we will hear something in 2025.

Off-camera, Hilary Farr has expanded her resumé by dabbling in home furnishings. According to Farr's website, the interior design expert has created collections of products from textiles to rugs since 2019. Farr hasn't announced any upcoming projects within her own interior design business, Hilary Farr Designs, but since beating cancer and leaving "Love it or List It," her outlook on life has changed. "You want to feel that every day is something different and special and grasp for those challenges," she told People. "That's really what I think drives me, anyway."

She's currently planning a passion project in Italy, building a small home on a plot of land she bought in the Southern European paradise. "That will be an adventure," says Farr. For the most part, it appears that Farr is just soaking in the quiet life. Her Instagram is filled with photos of her chilling with her precious dog Suki or braving Toronto's brutal winter weather.