Courtesy of Mina Starsiak Hawk/Instagram
Mina Starsiak Hawk Updates Fans on ‘Exhausting’ Family Feud: ‘There’s a Lot Unsettled’
For those hoping for a reconciliation between the Good Bones cast any time soon, Mina Starsiak Hawk is not holding her breath. The HGTV personality updated fans on where her relationships with her estranged family members currently stand during an episode of her “Mina AF” podcast on Monday, January 8.
The holiday season was especially hard for Mina, 39, who was torn about what to do amid her ongoing drama with her mom, Karen E. Laine, brother Tad Starsiak and former costar Cory Miller. When it came to Thanksgiving, Mina and her husband, Steve Hawk, ultimately decided not to spend the holiday with her whole family.
“I wasn’t in a place where I felt like the fallout from not being there was going to be more manageable than the bad feelings I would have from being there and sitting at a table and pretending everything was OK,” she said during the reflective podcast episode about her difficult year.
For the couple, Thanksgiving was a “test round” going into Christmas. The thought of having a traditional Thanksgiving with her family really didn’t “sit well” with Mina and made her feel “unsettled.”
“I think kind of like towards the end of the show, when I was just feeling very crummy and angry and like not in a good place with a lot of things and a lot of people, I think that’s kind of how I started feeling going into the holidays and it wasn’t bringing out the best version of myself,” the real estate investor told listeners.
Ultimately, they ended up going to Steve’s grandma’s house with their kids, Jack and Charlotte, for Christmas Eve. After about an hour, Mina took the kids to her family’s celebration with matching pajamas and cookie-making.
“I think I was feeling like, ‘I don’t want a spotlight on me for stirring the pot, I am trying to work on myself. I am trying to have positive interactions in my life. I’m trying to have positive relationships, and the things that don’t fall in those categories I don’t want to be a part of,’ and that can be challenging when some of those negative things are going to be part of your holidays.”
Steve, 42, stayed at his grandmother’s house for the entirety of the night after having a discussion with Mina.
“Steve did not come to everything, but I did end up going to all the family celebrations, I think, because after Thanksgiving, I just kind of adjusted my mindset to, ‘I can’t control any of this. I’ve said my piece, people know where I stand and me being like angstful or upset or stressed out at this point is really affecting nobody but me so I’m just going to move on mentally,'” she continued.
Mina admitted it has been “exhausting to pretend everything is OK.” She is still “not in a great place” with several of her family members and feels “weird tension and negative energy” while trying to coexist with them.
