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Erin Napier Bravely Reveals Why HGTV Event With Fellow Stars Left Her in Tears
Although Erin Napier breezily chats with clients and crew members in her hit show “Home Town,” the HGTV star just revealed she’s truly an introvert who cringes at the thought of crowded rooms and making small talk with others.
Napier opened up on April 2, 2025, during a podcast interview with Landon and Kate Bryant, fellow creatives who live in Laurel, Mississippi, where “Home Town” is filmed. On one occasion, she bravely admitted, her social anxiety caused her to crumple into tears at an event with other HGTV stars.
Erin Napier Calls Mingling With Others the ‘Scariest Thing’
As Erin and Ben Napier, her husband and “Home Town” co-star, chatted with the Bryants on the “Landontalks” podcast, she shared that while she loves authentically connecting with people about meaningful topics, she can’t stand “small talk.”
“I’m an introvert,” Napier said, and Ben interjected, “You don’t enjoy one-on-one.”
The mom of two quickly corrected him by saying, “No, I do enjoy one-on-one if we get to talk about real things. But if I have to do small talk, I kind of have a panic attack.”
“It’s very hard to be in a room full of people,” she continued. “I get on the verge of tears. Like, if I have to walk into a room and just mingle — the word ‘mingle’ is the scariest thing I’ve ever heard. It is. My eyes water.”
Ben then asked Erin if she remembered attending an “upfront” in New York. The annual media event, hosted by HGTV’s parent company, brings network stars, executives, and potential advertisers together to discuss future programming plans.
Recalling that fateful night, Erin said, “We were in New York, and we were in this huge room, and I thought I dropped my drink.”
“No, you thought I had dropped it,” Ben told her on the podcast. “You were so nervous and jittery, you had elbowed me and knocked it out of my hand.”
“And the drink spilled and then I just started crying,” Erin recalled, “because I was like, ‘I just don’t know what to say to these people right now!’”
Erin Napier Has Said Being on TV Has Been Challenging as an Introvert
Ben said the night in question, when Erin got so nervous she cried over her spilled drink, occurred in early 2018, several months after their oldest daughter Helen was born.
He explained, “It was everyone from HGTV, everyone from Food Network, everyone from Discovery, everyone from History (Channel), right? All these people. It was a huge deal and no one knew who we were.”
“Home Town” had premiered two years before and was an instant hit, but the Napiers insisted they felt like they didn’t belong in that room full of TV executives and stars, including “Property Brothers” Drew and Jonathan Scott, whom Erin called “the nicest people alive.”
“We were completely enjoying being the country bumpkins who were like, ‘You don’t know us,’” she told the Bryants, laughing as she recalled that Food Network host Guy Fieri “was like, ‘How do I know you?’ and you’re like, ‘You don’t.’”
“Everyone in there thought they were the most important person,” Ben said, but Erin added that they found a small booth tucked away, where they could watch everyone without interacting much. The best exchange that evening, Ben said, was when “another Southerner,” New Orleans native Harry Connick Jr., walked over to chat with them.
Erin has previously shared how challenging being an introvert has been for her, especially since landing on HGTV. In 2017, she wrote on Instagram that it’s one of the reasons Ben often has his arm around her on the show.
“The truth of it is, being an extreme introvert complicates my job and I suspect there are more of you out there like me,” she wrote. “Being on TV is unnerving for me, and since we met he’s always understood. Every time he touches my arm, my back, it’s letting me know I’m not alone. He’s always right there, and then I’m not nervous anymore.”
