There are a lot of couples who host popular shows on HGTV, but maybe none as publicly beloved as Ben and Erin Napier of Home Town. The tenth season of their franchise-starting home renovation series will hit the 2025 TV schedule later this year, and though the married parents of two have never seemed more settled, it wasn’t long ago that Erin had to shut down divorce rumors. Now, she’s opened up about one thing that keeps her marriage to Ben so strong.
What’s One Secret To Ben And Erin Napier’s Marriage?
Ben and Erin Napier have been super busy HGTV stars for a long time now. Not only did Home Town begin in 2016 after a surprising conversation with one of the network’s producers, but for several years now they’ve had to deal with the “dance” of parenting while working on the series and its many popular spinoffs.
The Napiers have been married for nearly 17 years (late November will mark their anniversary), so it makes a lot of sense that their thoughts on how to keep a relationship alive for so long would come out here and there. When speaking on The Heirloom podcast, Erin opened up about one secret she believes has kept her and Ben going for so long, and said:
The secret to mine and Ben’s marriage, the reason I think we have a happy marriage with very, very little conflict, is that I don’t let myself tell stories about him. I just say it. I say it right to him, ‘Are you doing this? Are you thinking that?’ And he says right back to me what he’s really doing and thinking.
This little tidbit might be a bit confusing at first, but it’s perfectly understandable after hearing what led into her revelation. While talking about the creativity needed to renovate and design homes, Erin opened up about the fact that her “negative creativity” also “imagines the worst possible scenario for every situation,” which takes “an enormous amount of work” for her to “suppress.”
In the area of marriage, or any long-term relationship, there are going to be many times where your partner hurts your feelings or otherwise does something that seems nonsensical. What Erin seems to be saying is that, instead of letting her mind get into its negative creativity and “tell stories” about what Ben’s doing and why he’s doing it, she just directly asks him about whatever’s going on. This way, she shuts down thoughts that will make his actions and motives more hurtful than they really are. She continued:
We’re together all day, so it’s very easy for us to do that, but our communication level cuts out my creativity in a very good, positive way.
As she mentioned, the duo’s work on their renovation projects never stops, and Erin also recently mentioned how their communication is “effortless now,” with them being together all the time for over a decade. While it’s not an easy thing to do, simply talking to your partner about what’s bothering you seems to be an important aspect of a successful relationship. Now, if it could just guarantee a successful TV series…
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