Tragic Details About HGTV's Alison Victoria

Alison Victoria has had a rollercoaster of a life — the highs have been glorious, and the lows have been as messy as they can get. The famous HGTV star, who hosts "Windy City Rehab," had to work hard and weather many tragedies to get to where she is today. Her first foray into television was a job as a behind-the-scenes designer on "House Crashers." While working the job, Victoria was dismayed to find that none of the DIY shows on HGTV featured any leading women, so she decided to break the mold herself, spoke to the producers, and landed her own spinoff show, "Kitchen Crashers." Not long after, she pitched the idea for "Windy City Rehab" — and it got approved. Making these kinds of shows is not for the faint of heart, however, with Victoria telling People in 2023, "[The work is] grueling and definitely not for the weak."

Victoria soon became a household name, but with her newfound fame came some legal woes as well. The star found herself the target of a disgruntled couple's lawsuit after their home, which she designed, ended up having some vital flaws, like leaks and other structural issues. Victoria was left shocked at the poor construction, which her then-partner, Donovan Eckhardt, had been responsible for. "All I ever did, and all I've ever done, is design," she said during an episode of the show (via People). "If you only knew what comes into my phone," she shared. "I have people coming out of the woodwork. I have homeowners that are being contacted by the press."

Unfortunately, this was but the first in a series of tragedies that followed, and trouble soon started brewing between Victoria and her business partner amid the legal mess.

While in the midst of a legal battle with the owners of one of her renovated houses, Alison Victoria discovered her former co-star's shady business practices. It turned out that Donovan Eckhardt, who ran the construction side of things, was running the business into the ground while making sure his company profited. Eckhardt got into legal hot water and dragged Victoria down with him when he got in trouble with the city of Chicago for doing construction work without a valid permit and not adhering to final inspections after work was completed. It was also revealed that some of the construction workers he hired were unlicensed.

Victoria was blissfully unaware of her business partner's misconduct at first but had to deal with most of the fallout, revealing on "Windy City Rehab," "Donovan was supposed to be in charge of the construction. I'm the designer. And yet when the time comes to write checks, everybody looks to me because he won't return anyone's phone calls" (via People). The star tearfully added, "I'm just dealing with a nightmare." She explained that no one cared that she wasn't directly responsible for homes falling apart or for the repercussions of her partner's shady business deals.

Victoria first started noticing something was off when she realized the properties she and Eckhardt had invested in weren't bringing in any money. When she started to look deeper, she realized that she was being duped. The fallout that followed was nasty, and some of it was captured on her show. Victoria later told People in 2020 that breaking up with her business partner was worse than getting a divorce. "But I have friends that have gone through divorces that aren't this bad. And those divorces were really bad," she said.

Something fans might not know about "Windy City Rehab" is that the show almost didn't make a comeback after the drama between Alison Victoria and Donovan Eckhardt. Victoria wasn't afraid to make some shady comments about Eckhardt, and while speaking to People after the very public professional breakup in 2020, she recalled how she went through a really dark time after her business relationship with Eckhardt imploded. "I would wake up every day and just want to keep the blinds closed and the covers over my head. I could feel myself slipping," she admitted. The work it took to get her show off the ground in the first place is what kept her going. Still, she had a moment where she asked herself if continuing was worth all the hardship.

Ahead of a new season of "Windy City Rehab" in 2023, Victoria told People that she nearly threw in the towel. Her and Eckhard's relationship had soured to the point where the two were no longer on speaking terms, and the whole ordeal had left Victoria questioning her next move. "I was at a place where I didn't know if I even wanted to do this anymore," she confessed. "I felt myself flipping and reevaluating things to say like, 'Do I really even want to be in this business anymore?'" Luckily, she decided to give it another go after taking a break, and fans, of course, rejoiced.

Life just kept handing Alison Victoria lemons. Around the same time as her breakup with her business partner, the HGTV star was also getting a divorce from her husband, Luke Harding. The two met on Match.com, got on like a house on fire, and subsequently bought a house together, which, naturally, Victoria renovated to their liking. The place was in bad shape when they first bought it, she later told HGTV Magazine. "Picture a mishmash of melamine cabinets, dated tile, and scratched-up butcher block. It had zero personality," she told the outlet, referring to the home's kitchen. The couple got married in 2013 but reportedly split in 2019, officially divorcing three years later.

Next, Victoria entered into a relationship with Michael Marks, who she credited with being her rock when the going got tough. The two were dating in 2020 and had reportedly been dating for a while then, but it's not clear when they split up due to Victoria keeping her love life pretty private. However, Victoria went public with her new beau, writer and director Brandt Andersen, in 2024. When Us Weekly asked the HGTV star if the two were planning on getting engaged, she said she wasn't really looking that far ahead (one can't exactly blame her, given the bad turn her professional and personal relationships had taken in the past). "I don't like that kind of stuff," Victoria said. "I like living in the moment. I really do."

In 2021, Alison Victoria weathered another personal tragedy — her father suddenly died. She took to Instagram to share the devastating news. "Newsboy, Boy Scout, FBI Agent, Public Defender, Federal Judge, but above all, Dad," she started her post. "He showed up. Without hesitation. Without reservation. He was just there to support and soak it all in with so much pride for his children." Victoria praised her father's "work ethic" and wisdom, promising to continue doing her best to make him proud.

Victoria spoke about her father's death on her HGTV show as well almost a year later, saying it came as a shock. Regardless, she pushed ahead with her show and her life because she knew it's what he would have wanted, citing his incredible devotion to hard work, after which she modeled her own. Victoria hinted that, if it hadn't been for her father cheering her on all the way, she likely wouldn't have made it through the tumult her HGTV show faced. "[He] loved watching my success," she shared (via People). "He'd be the one that said, 'Stand up, dust yourself off and keep fighting the good fight.'"

The first time Alison Victoria decided she wanted to freeze her eggs, she was 28. Everything was all set, but then she spent four years in a relationship, thinking she no longer needed to freeze her eggs. Only, said relationship ended, and she decided to give freezing her eggs another go. "Apparently my follicle count was super low and my levels weren't looking great, but I went for it anyway," Victoria shared in a post on Instagram. Still, she pushed through, spending a lot of money on the hormonal treatments required for the process, only to have no eggs to harvest when the time came. "The hardest part was watching them wheel in another patient and overhearing the doctor tell her they got 40 eggs. 40 eggs!!! She must have been 16 I told myself," Victoria added in her caption. It took eight rounds of treatment and retrievals for doctors to harvest five eggs.

On "Windy City Rehab," Victoria recounted her fertility journey, admitting that it had been rough. "I want to have my own children, and I want to have that option and I never want somebody to tell me that I can't," she said (via People). She admitted that the process was anxiety-inducing while also balancing her career, but that waiting for things to perfectly align to undergo the necessary treatment would mean she never gets around to it. "I'm trying to be hopeful," she said. "Because this is a lot of hard work. I'm taking a bunch of shots and am on a bunch of hormones and I just really hope it pays off."