HGTV's Erin Napier Has Totally Transformed Over The Years

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Erin Napier shot to fame as one half of an HGTV power couple with her husband Ben Napier, and the couple have inspired people across the world with their passion for their hometown, strong work ethic, and authentic romance. "We've formed our adult identities around each other," Erin told ET of her close bond with her husband and co-star. But Erin is so much more than her famous relationship — and her stunning transformation over the years proves that.

This talented star, who's instantly recognizable thanks to her trademark short blond 'do, started as youngster growing up in Laurel, Mississippi, with a passion for music and art. She's gone on to become a TV star and mother of two who's determined to make her hometown a better place for generations to come. "When you're young, you think the world is so much better if you could just get away from home — that the grass is always greener — but it's just not. Everywhere has problems. You can either complain about them and leave, or you can stay and do something about it," she told People. And that decision to stick with her roots has certainly served this down-to-earth star well.

Erin Napier (nee Rasberry) was born in 1985 and grew up in Laurel, Mississippi. As a child, she found socializing with her schoolmates difficult because she didn't have the same interests as most of her peers. "I was a bit strange and introverted," she told Southern Living. "Library time was my favorite. I had a fossil collection. I would put together natural history dioramas in old shoe boxes. Or I'd stay home and make a tiger costume — that was really exciting to me," she shared. 

The youngster's quirky nature wasn't exactly appreciated by other kids and she was bullied by her so-called friends. "One time, during hide-and-seek, I was it, and they all left me there and went to the house next door," she said. The future star also experienced anxiety as a youngster.

But Erin had the support of her mom, who nurtured the future HGTV star's early love of art. "We'd do art together every day. We made macramé and papier-mâché," Erin shared. And that quality time spent together with art projects would form the start of Erin's future career.

Around 1999, teenage Erin Napier believed her path might lie in music. In an Instagram post showing her playing a guitar and singing, she opened up about being a budding musician at 14. "I started playing music at the coffee house in downtown Laurel to earn my money. I did that until I graduated high school, when my interests in art just kind of edged out my interest in music," she wrote. Erin later told People music was her first love. "There was a newspaper story about [me performing], and by the time I graduated high school, there would be a crowd of 150 people in this little courtyard to come watch me play."

By college, however, Erin's love of art had become more prominent. She used her hometown as inspiration, which would become a recurring theme throughout her life. "As a budding artist in my high school years, I would come downtown to draw the beautiful architecture," she told Hooked On Houses. That love of art would only grow more serious after she graduated high school (with long hair!) and enrolled at the University of Mississippi, aka Ole Miss. The budding artist studied for a bachelor's of fine arts degree with an emphasis in print design.

Erin Napier's life changed forever when she met her future husband Ben Napier in college, when she was 19 and he was 21. In an Instagram post, Erin elaborated on their meet cute and admitted she was dating someone else when their paths first crossed, which is a strange factor in the Napiers' marriage we can't ignore. "On the day we met, I was sort of dating a guy I worked with at the hospital pharmacy ... And I was dating him because he looked a little bit like Ben Napier, this guy I had a crush on," she wrote.

Their love story really began with a chance meeting at a McDonalds, said Erin, who had taken a stunning leap from long to short hair. "I was so nervous talking to him I crashed and burned. We had about three more encounters like that," she told People. But fate finally stepped in when they bonded while working on their college yearbook, and they didn't waste time getting their love story on the road.

"December 8, we took the photos for the yearbook. December 9, we went on our first date and he met my mama. December 10, we looked at the Christmas lights in Mason Park. December 13, we decided we would get married someday," Erin shared on Instagram. She also opened up to Hooked On Houses about how they started planning their future together almost immediately, sharing, "When I would come home to visit during college, [we] would take long walks in the historic district ... and we would choose our dream houses."

Erin Napier graduated from Ole Miss in 2007 and life came at her fast. That same year, her college sweetheart Ben Napier proposed. Erin reminisced about the sweet moment on Instagram for their anniversary, sharing, "11 years ago a boy who had saved all the money he could set aside for 3 years surprised me at [Square Books] with a diamond ring and a little leather bound book he made himself." The fresh-out-of-college lovers married the following year and returned to where their love story all began, tying the knot at the University of Mississippi's Paris Yates Chapel.

But getting married wasn't the only thing going on in her life. The future star founded her own wedding stationery company, Lucky Luxe, which became a big success. "We loved our loft, a former toothpaste factory in WWII, but before long the business outgrew the confines of a home office and Lucky Luxe became an international success in the wedding world," she told Hooked On Houses. So, the happy couple decided to upgrade their digs. 

"We idly began thinking of buying houses, daydreaming really," Erin said, revealing they became friendly with a woman who owned a house she'd admired for years "Since I was a kid, I had always wanted to live in it," she told People. And her dream digs soon became hers. "We, jokingly, told her if she ever wanted to sell the house to call us because we'd love to buy it. And she called us a week later with a price we couldn't refuse. And we bought our dream house, the yellow craftsman cottage, in September 2011," she recalled to Hooked on Houses.

Erin Napier began courting notoriety in 2012 when she got in touch with the blog Hooked On Houses to share the renovations they'd completed on her dream home. That (plus attention from Erin's own blog) led to a feature with Southern Weddings, in which the Napiers gushed about their super close relationship. When asked to share her favorite thing about married life, Erin said, "Just belonging to Ben and sharing his last name makes my heart feel fluttery. How many people marry the biggest crush they ever had? I never forget that." She continued, "We share our work (he helps me at Lucky Luxe, I help him with youth ministry) and we share every meal every day. We're rarely apart from one another since we both work within a two-block radius of home."

But as they were on the cusp of fame, Erin was struggling with her health. In a 2022 Instagram post, she reflected on the difficult period of her life and noted that 2014 marked the end of 10-year illness that stemmed from a perforated appendix. But even after her physical recovery, Erin was left with other health issues. "It left some deep ruts in my neuro pathways that have left me with an extreme fear and preoccupation with sickness, nausea in particular, ever since," she wrote.

After the world got a taste of Erin and Ben Napier's romance and home renovation expertise, the spotlight on them only grew brighter. "['Southern Weddings'] posted pictures of our house on Instagram and we got a ton of new followers as result. A couple of months later we got an email from Lindsey, executive of original programming with HGTV," Erin told hottytoddy.com. "She said, 'I'm in love with your town, business and love story. Have you ever thought about TV?'"

From that email grew "Home Town." The renovation show debuted in 2016 and follows the handy couple as they refurbish properties around Laurel. "They said, 'We wanna make this a home renovation show, but also a romantic comedy,'" Erin told CBS News. The show quickly became a huge success for the network and Erin's evolution mirrored fellow HGTV star Christina Haack's transformation as she became one of the biggest names on the home improvement network. "We made the pilot and assumed it probably won't be on TV, it was just for fun. And then it was on TV, and it was 2.2 million people watched it," Erin said.

The Napiers also had business interests outside of TV. The same year the show premiered, they teamed up with two other couples to reopen the local store Laurel Mercantile Co. "For the six of us, all in our twenties, it was like a game: How can we make downtown Laurel feel alive again?" Erin told Southern Living.

In October 2017, Erin Napier shared exciting news on her blog when she confirmed she and Ben Napier were expecting their first child. The star candidly wrote about the relief she felt after questioning if she could become pregnant naturally, following the health issues related to her perforated appendix. "The hardest part for me was done — the decision had been made for me. I would be a mother," she wrote. The following January, they welcomed their first child; a daughter named Helen. Erin named Helen after her grandmother and shared in her blog, "My prayer for Helen is that she will be brave and kind. I pray that she will not be bullied the way I was, and that she will be a protector of the ones who are."

But parenthood didn't mean the Napiers weren't still focused on their growing empire. Now big stars thanks to their HGTV show, Erin and Ben told their story in the memoir, "Make Something Good Today." They also continued to expand Laurel Mercantile Co., as the store opened a second location in Laurel.

In 2021, Erin and Ben Napier became parents again when they welcomed their second daughter, Mae. "While we are excited to have another daughter to love, we are more excited to see the bond she and Helen will have. They're already so in love with each other!" the couple told People. They also spoke to "Today" about how different having two children is to having one. "We have less time to read to Mae because we're taking care of all the things that Helen needs," Erin explained. "And I beat myself up over it, like 'Is Mae not going to love reading because I haven't read 50 books to her?'" she asked.

But their busy new lives as parents didn't slow down their TV work. In fact, the couple doubled up on the HGTV duties when they premiered a "Home Town" spin-off, "Home Town Rescue." The new show saw the married couple hit the road to renovate another small town outside of Mississippi.

Behind the scenes, while their fellow HGTV stars Joanna and Chip Gaines faced divorce rumors, the couple seemed happier than ever. Erin even sweetly reflected on how far their relationship had come since she met Ben as a teenager. "I've spent most of my life with Ben. It's getting to the point where it's about to be I've been with you longer than I haven't," she told her husband in a joint interview with People. "We just don't know any other way. I mean, this is something we were talking about the other night, but we grew up together," she added.

Erin Napier added another gig to her resume in 2022 when she released her first children's book with her friend and artist Adam Trest. Titled "The Lantern House," it tells the story of a house as it watches its occupants grow up. "Honestly, I sat down and I wrote that in 30 minutes, the rough [draft]," Erin told People. "It just came very easily to me to tell this story, because it's a story that I've seen a million times in the work we do on 'Home Town,'" she added. The book marked a new career chapter for the star. Ahead of a solo appearance on "Good Morning America" to promote the book, she told her Instagram followers, "I've never traveled without [Ben Napier] before! Or done a live TV interview without him! HELP ME LORD."

When Erin wasn't busy with her book, she was focused on taking her showbiz career in a new direction. She and Ben became part-time actors when they took on small roles in the HGTV Christmas movie "A Christmas Open House." Ben shared a snap of the two on set on Instagram and wrote, in part, "It was fun pretending to be an actor for a week."

Despite Erin Napier taking on more solo projects, she and Ben couldn't have been closer in 2023. Erin opened up to ET about their seriously close bond, admitting they barely spent any time away from one another. "We're never apart. This is the only way we know how to be grownups," she explained. Ben elaborated, "We totally get that not everybody functions that way, but we do, and it's the only way we can." 

That same year, the couple celebrated a major TV milestone after filming 100 episodes of "Home Town." Erin shared a touching message on Instagram to commemorate the impressive achievement, writing, "We are so deeply honored that we get to be part of 'Home Town' and in your living rooms every week. Only 2.5% of shows make 100 episodes."

But that wasn't the only big news the two had to share with the world. Erin and Ben also launched Osprey in 2023, a non-profit designed to help parents who, like them, wanted to keep their children off social media. Erin spoke to "Today" about why she and Ben had decided to keep their daughters unplugged, explaining, "A lot of kids, especially girls, are vulnerable to criticism ... They aren't equipped to deal with the emotional fallout of hundreds of people having an opinion about them, and of being aware of what that opinion is." That same year, the star released another book, this time taking on a solo author role for "Heirloom Rooms: Soulful Stories of Home."

Erin Napier celebrated a milestone birthday in 2025 and shared an inspiring message about her big birthday via Instagram Stories. "Y'all, are we out here caring about forehead wrinkles? I'm turning 40 this month and I think ... we should all decide we don't care," she wrote (via People), joining the ranks of celebrities confronting aging with confidence. But Erin's busy life certainly wasn't slowing down.

The star also got candid about how she'd learned to focus on the good in her life. "I struggle deeply with anxiety and worry," she said on the "WHOA That's Good Podcast," sharing that blogging about the good things in her life helped changed her perspective. "The journal blog was a practice in daily counting my blessings, and it really changed my life," she said.

2025 also brought the news that she and Ben would be expanding their TV empire again. Not only was it confirmed that "Home Town" would return to screens in 2026 for a 10th season, HGTV also announced the two would be launching a new spin-off, "Home Town: Inn This Together." Erin made it very clear on Instagram that she and Ben were just as busy as ever, saying that breaks between episodes airing didn't mean they were resting on their laurels in Laurel. "It mostly just means it takes a whole year to renovate all the houses you watch in six months, so the work never stops, the viewing just does," she wrote. With such a refreshing stance on working hard and being grateful for her many blessings, we can only see great things coming for Erin Napier as she continues her transformation.