HGTV’s Egypt Sherrod & Mike Jackson Address Split Rumors & What’s Next
In the midst of dealing with Married to Real Estate behind-the-scenes drama, Egypt Sherrod and Mike Jackson also found themselves dealing with rumors about their marriage.
“From a fan standpoint, another monkey wrench in it all was false articles flying all over the place about us separating,” Jackson shared in a joint interview with his wife published by People on Friday, October 17. “We were like, ‘Where’s this coming from?'”
He continued, “Because we’re still deeply in love and having fun and traveling.’ So you’ve got all the exec changes, you don’t know what time slot and then you’ve got the fans reading articles that aren’t true.”
Jackson recalled their past relationship drama while opening up about the cancellation of Married to Real Estate, revealing that changes to the show’s production team and crew brought difficulties during its fourth and final season.
“We weren’t listened to and it felt like [we were] not necessarily respected the same. But they were all different players — not one single person from Season 1, 2, or 3 was left,” Sherrod told the outlet, adding that she and Jackson “at many points” felt like they were “mowed over.”
Jackson noted, “There were moments where you forgot, ‘Wait, we’re the executive producers.’ We’re like, ‘Everyone has a say, but it’s been kind of reversed.’ It was like, ‘Wait, isn’t this our show, our business, our house, our kids, our story, our marriage?'”
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Ultimately, Married to Real Estate was canceled after four seasons back in June. At the time, Sherrod revealed via Instagram that the couple had learned of the news upon returning from a family vacation to the Mediterranean.
“One of the first things we said is maybe we shouldn’t go on vacation anymore. Every time we went on vacation, we would get mollywhopped with something,” Sherrod told the outlet, referring to how she and Jackson previously learned of the show’s crew changes after returning from a trip to Costa Rica.
Married to Real Estate marked the second in a slew of HGTV cancellations this summer, including Bargain Block, Izzy Does It, Farmhouse Fixer, Battle on the Beach, Christina on the Coast, and The Flipping El Moussas.
Though the couple has previously denied rumors of a potential HGTV return, Sherrod and Jackson teased to People that they may not return to the small screen at all. “For us, being able to do Married to Real Estate was the full 360 of our family and our businesses. So we don’t wanna go back to like a templated show just to say we’re on TV,” Sherrod explained. “We just gonna sit still for a minute and either create, which is what’s happening now, either create the next phase for us or just not come back to TV.”
However, Married to Real Estate could return in a new format, as Sherrod revealed, “I own the trademark.”
Outside of TV, the couple operates their own real estate and home renovation company, Indigo Road Realty, and cohosts their Marriage and Money podcast. “Everything you saw on TV is real,” Sherrod stated. “This is just the beginning of our entire saga, so this had to happen. We want everybody to be okay with it and just continue to tune in for what’s next.”
