The Tragic Truth About HGTV's Ty Pennington

Ty Pennington has enjoyed quite a bit of success, but none of it came easily. By the time he became a household name with "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," Pennington had dealt with adversities that could have sent his life in a different direction. For starters, he came from a broken home and had no relationship with his father until his late preschool years. And when that relationship was established, it added very little. 

Pennington's childhood was also marked by his struggle with severe ADHD that went undiagnosed for decades, which had an impact on his education prospects. It wasn't until he received a proper diagnosis and treatment that he was able to fulfill his projects. And those projects also suffered considerable changes amid tragic circumstances. Pennington's first paying job had nothing to do with his carpentry skills but with his charming looks. But his blossoming career as a model took a downturn right when it was about to take off.

Pennington was in a car crash that left him badly scarred — an aesthetic incompatible with the beauty industry. The accident made him go back to carpentry, which eventually led to his TV career so it worked out for the best. Pennington is grateful for how the difficulties he encountered shaped him and his life. He was even more grateful for it all after he suffered a medical emergency that could have ended very badly. Pennington has lived an interesting life, made even more so by how much he has overcome.

Ty Pennington had no idea what his father, Gary Burton, looked like until he was 5. He was playing with his brother Wynn in downtown Atlanta when a man approached them with quarters. "This happens several times as we continue to play in the arcade center in Underground Atlanta while mom is somewhere next door at the jazz club called Dante's Down the Hatch," he detailed in his 2019 memoir, "Life to the Extreme." Being young kids, the boys continued to gladly accept the change without questions.

It wasn't until their mother, Yvonne Vickery, returned and asked the boys if they knew who the man was that Ty and Wynn gave the issue any thought. "Is he someone on the news?" Ty wondered. That was their father, she explained. The news had no big impact on the youngsters. "Cool. Can I have more quarters?" he asked. From that point on, Burton — whose last name Ty and Wynn carried before they were adopted by their mother's second husband — was in and out of their lives.

But he was more out than in. "[He was] a dreamer, but he isn't a great parent or a great financier," he wrote. His family life wasn't typical or even ideal, but Pennington has learned to embrace it. In the caption of a January 2019 Instagram photo of his family eating dinner, he added several hashtags that included the word "dysfunction" but also "aww" and "fun." 

Ty Pennington was known to be a difficult child. "I was an absolute handful," he said on ABC News in 2009. Because the disorder affects a person's ability to focus, the young Pennington was frequently removed from the classroom and given detention. Pennington doesn't hold it against the principal or his teachers. He was that hard to control. When his mother was a child psychology student, she asked his school permission to go run some tests on whoever their most complicated pupil was.

She was in for a surprise. "They let her observe me through a window and within 20 minutes I stripped naked, wore my desk around and swung on the blinds," he told HuffPost in 2012. "I was just a complete distraction to all the other students." Pennington was already in college when he learned he had been living with ADHD, a diagnosis that changed his life. "The minute I did it was like somebody putting glasses on," he said.

After he was put on medication, Pennington put himself through art school. His personality remained unchanged, but the longer attention span allowed him to dream bigger. "It helped me focus and actually achieve some goals I never thought I'd be able to," he told ABC News. It also gave him renewed gratitude for his mother's efforts in raising him. "Whooo get this woman a Nobel peace prize," he captioned an Instagram post in honor of International Women's Day in 2023.

If you often found yourself tuning in to "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" to gaze into Ty Pennington's dreamy eyes, you weren't alone. His good looks also got the attention of the fashion industry. While in college, he was discovered by a Japanese scout and jetted off across the world to model. Things were looking promising. Throughout his 20s, he was featured in ads for popular brands, working his way to the cover of the 1991 J. Crew catalog when he was 27.

He felt he was on the verge of a breakthrough in the modeling world. But just weeks later, Pennington was in a serious accident that changed his life. "Alas, fate had other plans," he wrote on Instagram. He was driving with a friend when he lost control and was thrown out of the flipping Jeep. "I lost all the skin on my back and my shoulders and my head," he said on Jen Hatmaker's "For The Love" podcast.

Pennington still flew out to Miami for an audition, but it didn't go as planned. "They called my agency and were like, 'Are you kidding me? What are you running, like, a Frankenstein [agency]?'" he recalled. That was the end of his modeling career. But the experience of being in front of the camera proved useful when he was called to audition for "Trading Spaces" nine years later. "And the rest is history," he concluded his Instagram post.

At the height of his success with "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," Ty Pennington got in some serious legal trouble. On May 5, 2007, the TV host was pulled over on suspicion of drunk driving in Los Angeles, TMZ reported. He was arrested but was released two hours later after posting $5,000 bail. He was charged with DUI and driving with a blood-alcohol level above the 0.08% legal limit, both misdemeanors. Later that month, he pleaded no contest to one charge while the other was dropped, ABC News reported.

Pennington faced up to six months behind bars but ended up receiving a three-year probation sentence instead. He also had his driving privileges restricted and was ordered to complete an alcohol program for three months. "I'm happy to bring closure to my recent court proceedings ... I hope this experience can help others as much as it has helped me," he said in a statement. He had previously stated that the arrest had been a learning lesson.

"I could have jeopardized the lives of others, and I am grateful there was no accident or harm done to anyone. This was my wake-up call," he said in a statement following his arrest (via CBS News). He also acknowledged the potential consequences the incident could have on his career. "I also want to apologize to my fans, ABC Television and my design team for my lapse in judgment and the embarrassment I have caused."

On July 11, 2023, Ty Pennington was showing off his slick gray suit on the "Barbie" red carpet. Two days later, Pennington was on a scary trip to the ICU. A day after he arrived in Colorado to film in Breckenridge, he woke up in his hotel room having difficulty breathing. "Next thing I know, I was intubated and flown to the ICU in Denver," he explained in an Instagram post. He quickly learned the throat itchiness that had been bothering him wasn't pharyngitis.

"Turns out, that sore throat Ive had for the last month was actually an abscess which had grown so large it was closing off my airway," he detailed. A day later, he underwent emergency surgery to remove the abscess, a pus-containing lump that can form anywhere usually as a result of an infection. "A great reminder to LISTEN to your body when it's telling you something," he shared. Pennington was showered with get-well wishes from fans.

The love he received kept him going during the difficult time. "If you almost die, you get so much attention. It feels so nice to be that loved," he told ET in March 2024. He felt so special that he wanted to reproduce the feeling. "I'm planning another one... No, I'm kidding!" he joked. But jokes aside, the experience sparked a renewed appreciation for his health. "It made me realize you just don't know when your timecard's gonna get pulled," he added.