Hosting the show put Ty in the spotlight, but being on the set took its toll. He could barely find the time for his private life.
“I didn’t see family or a girlfriend for 10 years. I would come home to do laundry and go out again,” he told The Atlanta Constitution in 2019.
“When I saw people from the old TV show, they said ’My God! You look amazing!’ I got some sleep! I would imagine I look a lot better than when I was on the show.”
In fact, Ty didn’t always want to be in the business of building things. On the contrary, he planned on being a graphic designer and worked in construction to pay the bills while he was in art school, but a near-fatal car accident he was involved in stopped on the way of his modeling career and he turned to carpentry.
“Overnight my career seemed to explode… but alas, fate had other plans. Only one week later I would be in a horrible car accident,” he wrote in an Instagram post. “I hung up my one decent head shot, picked up my trusty tool bag and went back to construction and carpentry. 9 years later I would get a call to audition for Trading Spaces… and the rest is history.”
He was first introduced to Hollywood as a set designer for the 1995 film Leaving Las Vegas, starring Nicholas Cage, but he only rose to fame with his role as a builder on Trading Spaces, the show that disrupted conventional concepts of home renovations.
After Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which brought him two Prime Time Emmy Awards, was canceled back in 2011, Ty turned to other projects. He joined ABC’s talk show The Revolution and later on became a part of two cooking shows, On The Menu and American Diner Revival. He also opened a Los Angeles based design store. In 2018, Ty was part of the third season of the Deluxe Corporation’s series Small Business Revolution: Main Street, and he also did some renovations for Trading Spaces. Most recently, he was seen hosting Battle on the Beach.
When Extreme Makeover: Home Edition aired again recently, he wasn’t offered to get back on the show, but he said there are no hard feelings or any bad blood.
Currently, Ty appears as a mentor and design expert on HGTV’s Battle on the Beach, and as a host on the show Rock the Block.
Ty married 33-year-old social media manager Kellee Merrell in November 2021. He proposed to her with a beautiful tea-drop-shaped diamond ring and shared the great news on Instagram by posting a photo with the caption “It’s the ‘yes’ for me…”
They have known in each other for a long time but only started dating last year after they stumbled upon each other.
“I have admired Kellee from afar for years. She’s a beautiful person inside and out,” Ty told People.
“Luckily our paths finally crossed at the right time. It’s one of those things where you just feel happy being around a person. I never thought I would get married, but she changed that. Glad I waited for the one.”
Last year, the host posted a fun video of him from the beach with his shorts spiked up to his stomach and added that ‘he was pushing his stomach out’ after some fans noted tha he no longer has six-pack.
He then decided to further address the criticism and wrote a lengthy Instagram post titled Thoughts on Aging in which he wrote: “What was an honest moment of just trying to make my wife laugh, was then picked apart by strangers- with a lot of views, comes a lot of hate! Comments like “disgusting,” “gross,” “omg he’s so old now,” “grandpa,” “he got fat…And I wondered, if I was still young and fit, would I be getting the same comments?” He continued, “There has been such a force behind accepting all shapes and sizes and aging in the female community which is AWESOME (keep it coming) but maybe let’s give that same grace to men?”
Of course, when he first appeared on television, he was decades younger than he’s today.
“On a daily basis Im inundated with comments like ‘NOOOo what happened to him???!!!’ Someone even commented the other day, ‘lack of exercise’ which I wish was the truth! I have NEVER worked out harder in my life-7 days a week (this over 50 sh*t is no joke ). “What happened” is, it’s been 22 YEARS since I made my television debut! “ he wrote. “No, I don’t have a six pack anymore or a luscious head of hair (with frosted tips ) but what I do have is wisdom, empathy, life lessons and at 57 years old, I’ve TRULY never been happier! Anyways, all this to say: I’m human and I have feelings. Yes, I am older but I think it’s pretty cool.”
As of us, we believe he looks awesome.
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