The Sad Reason HGTV Star Desta Ostapyk Had To Leave Love It Or List It
Longtime fans of HGTV's "Love It or List It" will likely remember design assistant Desta Ostapyk, who featured on the show for its first three seasons (generally with memorable hairstyles and colors). However, from 2014 onwards, she was notably absent — and sadly for the designer, that all came down to logistics.
Ostapyk opened up about the reason why she left "Love It or List It" in a 2015 Facebook post. At the time, she would share weekly "Five Fact Friday" videos on the platform — and in one of those videos, she responded to a fan who had asked if she'd be on the show again at some point. Sadly for them, she revealed, "Now that Love It or List It is in production in the States, not likely" (via Hooked on Houses). As some will know, "Love It or List It" was filmed primarily in Canada when it first started, before moving to North Carolina in 2014. Speaking to The Detroit News in 2015, Hilary Farr shared that much of that decision came down to wanting to appeal to an American audience, and that the homes she and the rest of the production team worked on weren't always relatable to viewers outside of Canada.
Back to Ostapyk, she went on to share in her Facebook post that she was sad not to be on the show anymore, and even gave a shout-out to her former co-stars Farr and David Visentin, sharing that she missed working with them.
Desta Ostapyk has continued to work on TV (just not Love It or List It)
Of course, the "Love It or List It" production did move back to Canada in 2020, so there was a chance for Desta Ostapyk to return to the show. That said, she didn't — and though she hasn't explained why, it does bear mentioning that she worked on a few different shows around that time. Those were "Making it Home with Kortney and Kenny," "Scott's Vacation House Rules," and "Project Bakeover," where Ostapyk featured as an art director, associate designer, and on-set designer, respectively. It's possible that scheduling played a role, then.
Ostapyk hasn't been on another show since 2022, so one might have hoped she'd be brought back to "Love It or List It" in 2023, but there was yet another spanner in the works: Hilary Farr announced that she was done with the HGTV show after a whopping 15 years on it. With that in mind, even if Ostapyk had returned, fans still wouldn't have had the OG squad together on their screens.
Even without Ostapyk being on the show, she's maintained pretty close ties to it over the years. In addition to posting clips of herself and Farr dubbed in Italian on her Instagram, she's gushed over David Visentin being the same on-screen and off. In 2023, Ostapyk also shared a throwback pic from the show's 100th episode party on Facebook. It's pretty clear she has only great memories from the show, so here's hoping that at some point she makes a cameo. We can dream, right?