How HGTV Star Nicole Curtis' Custody Battle Over Her Son Got Messy
HGTV star Nicole Curtis has been embroiled in a custody battle with Shane Maguire for many years, and both sides have made strong accusations against one another. In her 2016 memoir "Better Than New," Curtis wrote about being pregnant with her son Harper, who was born in 2015, and how she believed Maguire had no interest in being a father to the child. Meanwhile, Maguire refuted those claims and fired a suit in 2015 for joint custody, per People.
The following year, the fight for custody over Harper became more contentious. Maguire filed a suit in August 2016 to have the parenting agreement amended, as the "Rehab Addict" host did not want to allow the father overnight visits until their son was two years old, per court documents obtained by the Detroit News. In the lawsuit against Curtis, the father claimed that she was not acting in good faith and had often kept him from seeing their child, which included a time that she took Harper to New York while promoting her book. Although Curtis said that Maguire was welcome to fly out to see his son. A judge ruled in Maguire's favor, and ordered Curtis to pay the dad for missed parenting time and legal fees. Failure to do so would result in jail time.
Maguire brought Curtis to court once again in 2017 — his sixth court motion — alleging that she was still keeping him from proper visitations, per E! News. Tensions between the two parents only increased over that year.
Nicole Curtis's breast milk became a point of contention
When Shane Maguire took Nicole Curtis to court in April 2017, he claimed that the mother was using distance as an excuse to keep the father from Harper — Maguire lived in Minnesota, while Curtis lived in Michigan with their son. The DIY Network host did not want young Harper travelling while he was ill. "If [Curtis] did not want a young child to be on an airplane, she should not have moved from Minnesota to Michigan just days after the birth of Harper," court documents obtained by E! read. That was not the only tactic Maguire claimed Curtis had used to maintain additional custody.
Later that year, in November 2017, Maguire alleged that Curtis was using breastfeeding as an excuse to keep Harper from spending the night with his father, per People. The dad said that Curtis could pump breast milk, even though she maintained she was having trouble producing enough milk to pump.
That led to the TV presenter having to produce breast milk in front of a court-appointed third-party. A few months earlier, she discussed the ordeal in a revealing Instagram post in August 2017. "[B]eing court ordered to pump rather than feed my baby the only way he knows how," Curtis wrote. "[S]o they could document that yes, indeed my body doesn't produce enough milk by pumping," she added. Eventually the parents reached an agreement on child custody, but that was not the end of their legal drama.
The parents fought over how often their son traveled
Nicole Curtis and Shane Maguire were able to avoid a trial and reached a joint custody agreement in October 2018. Part of the agreement was that the "Rehab Addict: Rescue" host was to put $250,000 into a trust for their son Harper, which Maguire could access to buy a home nearby Curtis, per court documents obtained by The Blast. Maguire would have until Harper turned 19 years old to pay the sum back. Another stipulation of the custody agreement was that neither parent could "say anything in the presence of the child that portrays the other ... in a negative or false light," per People. Peace between the parents did not last, and they were back in court again almost four years later.
Maguire filed a suit to have the custody agreement amended in July 2022 as Harper was then old enough to be in school. The father believed that Harper's travels with Curtis were having a negative impact on the youngster. Even though Curtis disagreed with the assertion. "To be clear, Harper has never missed school because of our travels together," she wrote in court documents obtained by Radar.
Meanwhile, at the same time, Curtis fired back with allegations aimed at Maguire's wife — whom he married in 2021. She claimed that Maguire's wife had "endangered Harper by sharing his and my private information publicly," per court documents from Radar.