While Mina Starsiak Hawk and her mother thrilled audiences on their HGTV Good Bones TV show, they had a lot of drama behind the scenes. However, things only got worse after Gone Bones‘ finale. The mother-daughter duo, as well as Hawk’s half-brother Tad Starsiak, ran their Two Chicks and a Hammer business for several years.
With their perfect synergy on Good Bones, fans were shocked to know Mina Starsiak Hawk has been estranged from her mother, Karen E. Laine, for months. Interestingly, it isn’t only her mother from whom she’s been estranged; she considers her relationship with members of her blended family complicated. Here’s a detailed breakdown of Mina Starsiak Hawk’s blended family and family drama.
Understanding Mina Starsiak Hawk’s Blended Family
There’s no denying Mina Starsiak Hawk’s family drama stems from the number of siblings, half-siblings, and relatives she has in her blended family. Hawk rightly put it in her September 2023 MinaAF podcast, stating, “I’m trying to navigate a very large, Catholic, Polish family that rides hard on guilt and celebrates everything with everyone. Setting those boundaries has been tricky, and they keep changing.” While Hawk and her mother, Karen E. Laine, are the main cast on HGTV’s Good Bones, behind the scenes, their family tree is quite complex.
Mina Starsiak Hawk is the first child and daughter of Karen E. Laine’s first marriage. Laine’s marriage to Casey Starsiak gave Hawk two biological brothers, CR Starsiak and William Starsiak. Mina Starsiak Hawk has two half-siblings, Thadeus “Tad” Starsiak and Jessica after her biological father remarried the late Cheryl Starsiak. Tad, who played the “Hammer” on Good Bones, grew up with Hawk after Laine took him in and raised him like one of her sons.
Mina Starsiak Hawk also has half-siblings from her mother’s other marriages. Although currently married to Roger, Hawk’s mother married two other men, Randy Gray and Mick, after her divorce from Hawk’s father. Another of Hawk’s half-sisters is Kelsy Spaeth, whose father is Randy Gray. Growing up and living in an ever-expanding blended family means dealing with several polarized views and interests. Even while trying to avoid conflict and drama, there are bound to be clashes often.
Mixing Family & Business
Depending on who you ask, mixing family and business (better put as a family business) is either the best or the worst idea. As Good Bones audiences have been made aware, it was probably the wrongest decision the blended Starsiak family could have undertaken. Mina Starsiak Hawk and Karen E. Laine’s working relationship as a realtor and home designer was probably the best thing that could happen to Indianapolis on Good Bones.
Going back to the beginning, Laine needed a home to use as an office for her defense attorney law firm. Laine is a law graduate from Indiana University Robert McKinney School of Law. Rather than hire a team to fix and design the home, Laine and Hawk did the repairs together. At the time, Hawk worked as a part-time waitress at a restaurant.
Since their work on the home turned out impressively, they decided to open a renovation business in 2007, Two Chicks and a Hammer, in 2007. The mother-daughter duo excelled in the business, so much so that it caught the attention of HGTV producers. This led to HGTV offering them a show, Good Bones, to showcase their Two Chicks and a Hammer business.
Mina Starsiak Hawk & Karen E. Laine Always Had A Rocky Relationship
While the manifestations of their family drama are evident for all to see today, Mina Starsiak Hawk and her mother, Karen E. Laine, had not always had a great relationship. Hawk revealed in her September 18, 2023 podcast episode that, “But it’s not been one thing that my mom and I can go back to and I can say, ‘OK, I forgive you and we’re gonna go past this one thing.’ It’s a cumulative situation from the time I can remember when I was 3, of things that have created the situation that we’re in now, and it’s incredibly hard to undo, particularly with someone who’s not actively in therapy or actively working on themselves.”
Financial Liability Caused A Major Rift In The Family
Good Bones centered around Mina Starsiak Hawk and her mother renovating properties. Behind the scenes, this required a lot of paperwork, approvals/permits, and finances. Hawk revealed in a podcast that she had to bear all the financial liability from the business. Although her mother left their Two Chicks and a Hammer business in 2019, after Hawk admittedly bought her out, Laine still appeared on the show.
For unexplained reasons, Hawk stated she was left to shoulder all of these financial liabilities. At the same time, the rest of her family appeared on the show and were directly and indirectly profiting from it. In the big reveal, Hawk stated, I pay the liability insurance… I, as one single human, carry the weight of everything you see on TV.” With that understanding of things, it’s easy to see why conflicts and dramas were unavoidable in the long run.
Mina Starsiak Hawk Is Not On Talking Terms With Certain Family Members
Over the years, the rift between Mina Starsiak Hawk and her family, especially her mother, grew wider, unchecked. Hawk revealed in her podcast that filming the last season of Good Bones was the most challenging. She said, “There were definitely some challenging [moments] because my mom and I were in some of the most challenging places I felt we’ve been.” Adding that they had “a knockdown drag-out [fight] during demo.” Mina Starsiak Hawk later shared that she’s not “in a great place” with her mother and hasn’t spoken in about a year.
However, it wasn’t only her mother with whom she had a rough relationship. Hawk added, My brother Tad and I aren’t in a great place. My brother William and I are in a kind of like nonexistent place. It’s complicated without even being complicated. We don’t really engage much and the last engagement wasn’t super positive, and that was maybe a year ago.” While planning for her son’s fifth birthday in August 2023, Hawk stated,“Not only do my mom and my two brothers not fall into that category of being involved in their life on a regular basis, we’re also not on good terms.”
Besides her mother, her half-brother, Tad Starsiak, was another well-known Starsiak on Good Bones, having been the “Demo god.” Throwing more light on her relationship with Tad (whom she helped remodel his home in the finale), Hawk stated, “My brother Tad said some really awful stuff to me, and I’m sure he would say that I’ve said some awful stuff to him too. But the most recent stuff he said to me, he can’t say it’s not what he said. He can’t say I misunderstood. It’s in text and it’s black and white and that was kind of my final straw there.” Hawk added, “Nothing happened, but I just don’t want to be around him because he’s not a kind person to me. And I’m sure he feels the same, in all fairness.” With all of Mina Starsiak Hawk’s family drama, audiences can’t wait for Good Bones return to HGTV for a ninth season in mid-August 2024.
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