Following her surprising departure from Love It or List It after 19 seasons, Hilary Farr called the show “boring” and “stale.” The designer also revealed that things behind the scenes of the HGTV series, which she costarred alongside David Visentin, weren’t always going according to plan.
“I’ve always loved working with David and the actual work was great, but as you say, behind the scenes, the design, the difficulty, the supply-line issues, the delays … everybody was stressed, and it just felt different,” she told Vulture in an interview published on Monday, December 18. “It was taking up too much of my life and it was boring.”
Hilary went on to say that it simply felt like the time was right to leave the show after more than a decade of dominating ratings.
“You know that saying, ‘If not now, when?’ That’s truly it,” she explained. “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.”
Ultimately, the former actress realized that her solo series, Tough Love With Hilary Farr, was much more “meaningful” for her to film.
“There was no competitiveness in it, there was no aggression or contentiousness, which is part of the formula of Love It or List It because it is a competition, ultimately,” she added.
While her Love It or List It journey has come to an end, fans need not worry about Hilary disappearing from HGTV completely.
“I don’t think it’s a retirement at all,” the British-Canadian TV personality explained. “It’s simply an exodus from Love It or List It, which is a beast of a show to film. There are so many moving parts. It’s so consuming on all levels, and exhausting. I still want to do Tough Love, though, and I have all sorts of irons in the fire on other projects. I just need to do them on my terms.”
Before publicly announcing her decision to leave the popular real estate series, Hilary admitted she was met with another offer from HGTV to rethink things.
“As far as I knew, it had been put to bed, but then the network came back, and they were lovely and flattering and friendly, and they made a very generous offer on all levels,” she revealed. “It was very nice, and I had to think about it. But I still came to the same answer. I just can’t do it again. They’ve been very gracious, though, as has David.”
So far, a new season of Love It or List It has not yet been officially announced.