The Scandal That Rocked Home Town Star Ben Napier's Reputation

Husband and wife duo Ben and Erin Napier burst onto the HGTV scene in 2016 with the debut of "Home Town," a television series that showcases them breathing new life into the historic homes in their small town of Laurel, Mississippi. "You don't have to be an expert to save your town, you just have to care enough to get up and do it," Erin declared during the show's original 2014 casting video (via People). Since then, the couple has churned out several spinoff shows, including "Home Town Takeover," "Home Town Kickstart," and "Home Town: Ben's Workshop." But if you ask them, they never even thought one show was possible. "We never expected this. Getting a TV show never even crossed our minds," Erin confessed to People in April 2020.

Alas, it's not been all rainbows and sunshine for HGTV's golden couple. Here's everything we know about the scandal that rocked Ben's reputation and jeopardized their good fortune.

The Magnolia state was turned on its head on February 5, 2020, when Mississippi's former director of the Department of Health and Human Services, John Davis, was among six individuals arrested and charged with embezzling state welfare money. You know, taking money from the impoverished to enrich themselves and their own personal endeavors. Yuck.

Then, in May 2022, the state launched a civil lawsuit against 38 more people, including famous retired football quarterback Brett Favre, for profiting from the scheme. In the lawsuit obtained by Mississippi Today, attorney Brad Pigott alleged that Favre was instrumental in diverting funds from the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program to fund $5 million towards a volleyball facility at the University of Southern Mississippi. The school is his alma mater, where his daughter was attending and playing volleyball at the time. Another $1.7 million went towards the creation of Prevacus, a concussion drug of which Favre was an investor. But that's not all — it's also alleged that he received $1 million in speaking fees that he never actually spoke for. Yikes. By October 2021, official audits revealed that more than $77 million in welfare funds had been spent illegally.  

So, how does this involve HGTV's Ben Napier? As it turns out, he was somewhat instrumental in constructing Favre's fancy, ill-gotten volleyball complex, ironically dubbed the Wellness Center, though it's not exactly what you'd think. 

As the old saying goes, "If you lie down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas." Perhaps this was a lesson house remodeler turned reality star Ben Napier learned the hard way. 

On September 24, 2022, former Governor Phil Bryant released text messages between himself and Brett Favre to prove that he was unaware that the money for the volleyball facility had been wrongly funneled from state welfare funds. Mississippi Today investigative journalist Anna Wolfe reported on the private text messages and even tweeted out parts of the conversation. But after tweeting that Ben had "assisted with" the construction of the lockers at the former governor's request, she found herself in a Twitter war with Ben's wife, Erin Napier. 

In a since-deleted tweet (via Heavy), Erin fired back, "Ben didn't build lockers for anyone. The governor texted asking him if he could recommend someone to build wooden lockers, and Ben offered a recommendation for a cabinet maker we work with. You should get total clarity on a fact like this before you tweet it." Wolfe then responded with another tweet that read, "Thank you for responding! The public court file, attributed, and tweet say 'assisted with' locker construction, which sounds consistent with your account. I will further clarify now." Special emphasis on the words "assisted with," i.e., recommended where the services could be obtained.