How Jenny & Dave Marrs Navigated Grief on ‘Fixer to Fabulous’ Set After Family Losses

Working on Season 8 of Fixer to Fabulous has been difficult for Jenny and Dave Marrs in more ways than one.

The HGTV couple and their family have dealt with several losses over the past year, including the deaths of several farm animals, their dog, family friends, a former Fixer to Fabulous: Italiano guest, Dave’s mother, and Jenny’s grandmother. With production officially underway on their show’s latest season, Jenny said she’s learned to “compartmentalize” her emotions on set.

“You have to [be like,] ‘OK, we can’t even think about what is happening in our real life because the cameras are here, and we have to get this job done,'” she exclusively told TV Insider. “Our production crew flies in for filming weeks, and so when they’re here, we have to work… We can’t just tell them, ‘Sorry, I can’t do it today.’ There’s no option. We have to. And so, I think it is hard.”

Jenny recalled learning that their family friend, Mr. Bob, had passed away shortly before filming a home walk-through with clients last year. “We did push back two hours, but then we had to — I ended up bringing my friend, who’s a makeup artist, to set with me that day. I don’t ever do that, but I was like, ‘I need your help.’ We would just take breaks and walk off. But we also didn’t want the homeowners to know, because then we’re trying to keep them [happy]. We’re like, ‘Oh, hi. Great to see you,’ and then, like, ‘I’ll be right back,’ and go in the garage and cry.”

 

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Jenny noted that dealing with grief on set made things “extra challenging,” adding, “It was hard to process grief and loss and not really have the time or the space to do that. So, yeah. I think that made it actually much more difficult.”

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While working on Season 8, Dave said he and Jenny have received a lot of support from their production company and crew, many of whom have been with the show since the start. “Last year, when my mom got really, really sick, we didn’t have homeowners, so I left, and they adjusted,” he told TV Insider. “And they said, ‘OK, we’re flying home, and this is more important.'”

Dave noted that same support is also lent to their family’s happier moments. “If I’m coaching my kids in soccer or basketball, that takes precedence over filming something, and they are very good to help as much as they can work around that with us,” he shared. “It’s hard as contractors and builders. Before this show, we really controlled our schedule. So, if I wanted to schedule a month where we went somewhere as a family, I could work the builds around that, where now, we kind of have to start at the beginning of the year and say, ‘Hey, here’s our blackout dates,’ and they fill the schedule. So, when stuff does inevitably happen, we just try the best we can to work around it.” (Dave and Jenny, who have been married since 2005, share five kids.)

Mike Davello for Aleve

Working on Season 8 of Fixer to Fabulous has also been a physical challenge for the couple, which is why they have teamed up with Aleve for Project DIY. The campaign celebrates “weekend warriors” across the country who feel the side effects of tackling at-home renovation, construction, and design projects.

“I think the great thing about what Aleve did was they built this around a remodel, around fixing up an area, in this case, a back porch of a home. With any kind of fixing up and any work, there comes pain, and a lot of work,” Dave said of the partnership. “And so, working through Aleve to basically get all-day-long pain relief, and then, do a renovation at the same time — it was a good mixing of getting to do a good thing for a person and talking about pain relief at the same time.”

Fixer to Fabulous Season 8, TBA, HGTV