Regardless of how much success Alison Victoria has found as an HGTV star, she’s a human first.
“I think that with anyone — whether you’re in the public eye or not — when something hurts, you can either be crippled by it, or you can be empowered by it,” Victoria, 43, exclusively shared with Us Weekly on Monday, May 19. “Stuff stings and it makes you second guess yourself.”
Over the weekend, Victoria was at the airport when she came across a critical article about herself. While traveling to Las Vegas to film her new show Sin City Rehab, the interior designer saw a post with the headline: “Why Some HGTV Fans Seriously Can’t Stand Alison Victoria.”
Although she’s been a public figure for many years and is aware that people can comment whatever they’d like online, Victoria said the words and angle of the story hurt her.
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Thanks to HGTV, real estate agents, general contractors and interior designers have become household names. “Home building [and] home design 20 years ago was this deep, dark mystery,” the network’s cofounder Kenneth Lowe told Architectural Digest in July 2019. “People just didn’t understand it, and a lot of what HGTV has done is educate the […]
“I told myself years ago that I wasn’t going to let anyone dim my light, and unfortunately, an article like that will, and it sucks,” Victoria explained. “My flame won’t go out but it’s awful to read.”
Critical comments can be especially “hurtful” for the HGTV star because everything she does on the small screen is unscripted and real.
“I do reality television, which means the person that you see on those shows like Windy City Rehab and my soon to be show Sin City Rehab, that is reality,” she explained. “That’s as real as reality gets. But that’s who I am to my core. People are seeing me for me.”
Victoria, however, knows she’s not alone when it comes to online bullying. From A-list actresses to ordinary moms posting about parenting, the real estate expert acknowledged that so many people are faced with critics and haters in their life.
Over the years, Victoria has tried her best to not take anything personally.
“Understand that the person on the other side is going through some sort of pain because it takes someone in pain to want to inflict pain on others,” she said. “‘If I hurt, then I’m going to hurt someone else.’ And that’s a very vindictive way to live. If you stop and you put yourself in that person’s shoes and you look at it from the outside, you can kind of feel their hurt, and you almost feel bad for them. When you feel bad for somebody, you have empathy.”
Victoria also tries to come from a place of gratitude. The Emmy-nominated producer starts her day with a five-minute journal, where she writes down what she’s grateful for and what she hopes will happen in the day ahead.
She’s also thrilled to have the support of her boyfriend, Brandt Andersen, who can get fired up and defend his partner or help put things into perspective.
“I love life. I wake up smiling. I can’t wait to see what the day is going to bring,” Victoria shared. “I worked really hard to get here, and it feels surreal that I’m finally in a place of true happiness, loving where I live and having the most amazing job in the world.”
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When reflecting on the article, Victoria is moving forward and trying to prove that living well is the best revenge.
“That [writer] did dim my light, and those comments hurt my feelings,” she said. “But no one’s ever going to turn the lights out.”
Sin City Rehab is expected to premiere later this year on HGTV.
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