HGTV’s Erin & Ben Napier Open Up About ‘Problems’ & ‘Jealousy’ in Their Marriage

Erin and Ben Napier may be one of HGTV‘s strongest couples, but they still have their share of relationship struggles.

The Home Town stars got candid about their marriage on a recent episode of Talk To Me: The Debra Fileta Podcast. “We’ve been literally inseparable since December 7, 2004,” Erin said, to which Ben added, “We’ve always worked together, and we don’t know how to do it any other way. It’s a question that comes up a lot when we’re doing media days and things and interviews. It’s like, ‘Oh, how could you stand to work with your spouse all day long? And to me, that’s more of a sign of, like, ‘Something’s up if you can’t stand to be with your spouse all day.'”

Erin and Ben enjoy each other’s company so much that issues only arise when they’re not together. “The only time problems come up for us is when we have spent more than two nights away from each other, which has only happened a handful of times,” Ben revealed. “And then it’s, you know, ‘Hey, why didn’t you answer when I called you?’ And, ‘Because I was busy. What’s wrong? Why was that so important that you needed me to answer right away?’ It’s that. So, I guess, maybe our problem is that we can’t be apart.”

Not only can they not “function separately,” but Erin said their daughters, Helen and Mae, “can’t function without one parent.” She explained, “They like it to be both of us all the time. He went away for one night a few weeks ago, and the girls acted like he had passed away. It was insane.”

Erin and Ben fell in love after meeting as college students in 2004. “Once I got to college, I would see Ben in the student union, and he would look for the person who was eating alone, and he would go sit with him,” Erin recalled of their early relationship days. “He was the most popular guy on campus. He was the president of every organization. He was on every page of the yearbook. I mean, if there’s a picture to be taken on that campus, there he was.”

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Erin met Ben while interviewing him for a yearbook piece. “He had a maturity that was beyond 21 years, even though he was still there to have a good time. But I just thought he was the greatest, and I had the biggest crush on him for these reasons and others,” she gushed.

As much as Erin loves how Ben cares strongly for others, she also envies it. “He’s always focused on that. That’s his number one focus,” she stated. “It’s not for me. It’s not for me at all.”

Ben said their differences are what make them a “good fit,” while Erin added, “I’m jealous of that about him.”

Earlier this month, Erin gave Ben a sweet Instagram shout-out amid production on Season 11 of HGTV’s Home Town. “Blue collar and college educated. An artist, but also a mechanic,” she captioned a pic of her husband sporting a blue button-up shirt. “The biggest and strongest man in the room, who wrote his wife a love letter at 4:30 am. Staying up late reading Larry McMurtry, getting up early to plant butterfly bushes for his daughter who wants to hold a monarch in her hands. If we ever lost him, he would be 100% irreplaceable.”

She continued, “There is not another man anything like him, and I think about this often.”

Home Town, Season 11, TBA, HGTV