Beloved HGTV star Jenny Marrs has had enough. The mom of five, who has starred with her husband Dave Marrs on “Fixer to Fabulous” since 2019, let her Instagram followers know on May 7, 2024, that she is fed up with people harassing and criticizing her children online.
In a heartbreaking series of Instagram Stories, Jenny exposed “online hatred” aimed at her eldest daughter and said that the harassment has gotten so bad that she has come close to quitting her TV show “multiple times,” tempted to go back to living a private, quiet life on their Arkansas farm.
“I’ve been dealing with this harassment since season one,” she wrote over a screenshot of a recent snide comment from someone about her daughter Sylvie’s hair, which Jenny said they’ve received an unimaginable amount of cruel comments over. Though Jenny has not quit yet, she said Sylvie will no longer appear on the show very often.
“My job is to love and protect my kids,” she wrote, “and this world is so cruel and I’ll never be able to fully protect them from it but I am damn well not putting them in the lion’s den.”
Jenny Marrs Called the ‘Online Hatred’ Shown to Her Eldest Daughter ‘Abhorrent’
The Marrs are parents to five kids — 13-year-old twin boys Nate and Ben, 12-year-old Sylvie, almost-10-year-old Charlotte and 4-year-old Luke. After issues with her first pregnancy carrying the twins — which Jenny wrote about on Instagram on April 29, 2024 — she and Dave decided to expand their family through adoption, something they’d always planned to pursue, they told People. They fell in love with a little girl born in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2012.
But the path to bringing Sylvie home to them was long and painful, Jenny told Better Homes & Gardens. Just as their adoption paperwork was finalized in 2013, a Congolese government shutdown put a halt to all adoptions, the outlet reported. A local doctor and her husband fostered a dozen children who were in limbo, including Sylvie, the outlet reported, and she did not arrive in the U.S. until 2014 — 600 days after the Marrs’ adoption process began.
Video from the emotional day Sylvie arrived and footage of the Marrs family over the years was turned into a music video for J.J. Heller’s song celebrating adoption, called “Love It Here.” But Jenny says people have scrutinized and belittled their journey and their young daughter ever since their family began appearing on TV.
The comment that Jenny highlighted in her Instagram Stories on May 7 came from someone who wrote on a post from October 2022, which showed the Marrs family celebrating the final day of filming “Home Town Takeover” in Fort Morgan, Colorado.
“Please find someone to do Sylvie hair,” the person wrote. “She always looks sad. May I suggestion finding an African Braiding Shops. Her braids are all grew out.”
Over a screenshot of the comment, Jenny wrote in her Stories, “I am DONE with these comments. D O N E. I’ve been dealing with this harassment since season one when I mistakenly let sylvie be in a scene on hair day before her hair was styled. She ran outside into the barn and we had just taken her braids out so we did a quick bun and let it go. (I actually told our producer that I couldn’t let her on camera like that and she said I was overreacting — I’ll never do that again).
“The online hatred that has been spewed at me because of that one moment is abhorrent,” Jenny continued, adding that the comment she shared was “extremely mild” compared to others she’s received.
Jenny Marrs Explained How Much Care They’ve Taken With Sylvie’s Hair
Though Jenny said she typically doesn’t reply to mean comments, she felt compelled to respond to the one she posted on May 7 about Sylvie’s hair.
She shared her response via her Instagram Stories, explaining, “We have her hair done professionally by an African American stylist every 4-6 weeks depending on Sylvie’s schedule. She plays basketball every day and is an active kid so sometimes her hair gets messed up even though we try to ensure it’s always well taken care of.”
Jenny went on to say Sylvie’s asked to try doing her own hair, with help from a friend and YouTube videos, and that as her mom, she would “never knock down her confidence by not letting her style her own hair. She loves doing it.”
As for the person’s comment that Sylvie “looks sad,” Jenny explained that her daughter is “shy and does not like the cameras and never wants to be on the show so we never make her.”
“Do you remember being twelve years old?” Jenny asked the commenter. “Did you want to be on national television for strangers to see you and JUDGE your hair for goodness sake???? I’m so fed up with having to scroll my social media to ensure no one is saying mean things about my kid. And to do it on an old post means you are specifically trolling and not trying to engage in a healthy or helpful conversation.”
Over her response, Jenny added further explanation in her Instagram Story, saying that she could “write a twelve chapter novel about this subject and the way the enemy has attacked our family through this one area.
“I have wanted to quit the show MULTIPLE times because of this,” she continued. “I almost didn’t show up for this current season because of a really horrible article online about my kid. If you don’t like a paint color I choose, fine. Talk about my kid and I’m going full momma bear.”
From here on out, Jenny wrote, “You won’t see sylvie on the show very often and this is why.”
Fans Rally Around Jenny Marrs After Sharing Her Family’s Pain Around Online Bullying
In the last Instagram Story Jenny shared on the morning of May 7, she wrote that none of her kids have “social media or smart phones or computers,” but their friends do.
“I know there will come a day when they’ll come across this garbage,” she wrote. “That’s why I constantly scan my comments to block and delete.”
Adding that they have many friends praying for Sylvie, Jenny wrote, “I know God is protecting her heart but if we could all just be a little kinder online and consider the ramifications of our words, then maybe my rant this morning was worth it. ??”
Later that day, Jenny posted another message in her Instagram Stories, thanking everyone who reached out with love and kindness in response to her “rant.”
“Y’all did my heart good,” she wrote. “This wasn’t an isolated occurrence — the amount of comments I receive on a daily basis related to one of my kids would blow your mind. This is the reason I said no to doing the show originally. As a transracial adoptive momma, I knew what was in store if we opened ourselves up to the world.
“But, God,” she continued. “He knew all along what was to come and He prepared my heart. And, even in moments when I’m fed up (like this morning), He rushes in by sending so much love and kindness my way. So thank you for being that today. There is absolutely still good in the world and light will always drive out the darkness.?️”
FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE PEOPLE! Im white as the driven snow & wouldn’t step foot anywhere in that part of the COUNTRY!
A) Cuz im not fake B) id be afraid if i saw any racist shit (ALL, even blacks hating on whites too! I get enuf of that shit) I’d end up in jail. My tolerance is non existent
I have had the pleasure of watching fixer to fabulous for as long as it’s been on air. Additionally, I’ve had the pleasure of watching the love between Joanna and Dave, and all of their children. I have admired Joanna since the day that I saw she adopted a child, Sylvia,, not only internationally, but with a beautiful skin color of her Nation. To look at this girl, she is a class act, she always exudes happiness, and I would bet that she grows up to be quite beautiful.. Not that that is what is important, nor is it what Sylvia necessarily aspires to be. Nonetheless, she will be. It is only recently that I realized the nightmare that both Dave and Joanna have suffered. The first time I heard of it, I decided to look up a couple of stories, and was just dumbfounded at the the the ignorance, hatred, and big a tree but ran rapid through these women’s mouths. Mouths. And while I’m not sure it’s all women, I know women well enough to bet that probably 95 to 100% of the comments are from the female gender. What makes women so simplistic is that they don’t realize that they are their own worst enemy. It’s not the men provide the glass ceiling, it’s Petty, bitter and vindictive women. I look at Joanna and think, “how could this woman possibly be criticized?” If you watch her on the show, she is always giving, she is extremely modest, she is always gracious to everyone around her, and like her daughter, I think. Love exudes from her just as much. Before I heard about all these problems, I would have ventured to bet that not one single human being on the face of this Earth would have anything negative to say about Joanna Mars. Boy was I shocked. However, like a comment that I made before, of all of you women that have nothing better to do in your lives for to criticize others, please raise your hand if you have adapted a child from Zimbabwe? Please, come out on the social media that you use as your personal knife, provide a picture of yourself and your black child. It doesn’t take a genius to know that no one that has made that kind of sacrifice, would go out of their way to criticize another family for doing so. I feel very bad for Dave as well, but from everything that I’ve read, Joanna gets the brunt of it. That’s how simplistic and nasty women can be. If you never opened your mouth again, you’ve already said too much.
As a follow-up to my recent comment, all of you women that have trash talk. This family need to remember that your day of judgment will come. I don’t think it will go unnoticed that trash in this instance.
As a follow-up to my recent comment, all of you women that have trash talk. This family need to remember that your day of judgment will come. I don’t think it will go unnoticed that trash in this instance. Awesome, when I went back to read my post, I didn’t noticed that the word bigotry was spelled out to be big. A tree. Make no mistake, for all of you that have made the Myers family the topic of your vicious Miles, that’s what you are.
That was a 2 part comment! Wasn’t talking about the Marrs fam being fake, it’s the SOUTH! Southern hospitality is fake
One more time! Although I’ve come to realize that my dictation has not I always come out properly, but I think anybody that takes the time to read this, well know what I’m is saying. I also believe that you know who I am addressing. May God’s judgment on you not be as harsh as it has been to the Mars’ family. Joanna and Dave, please remember that people who walk with God would never say the things that they have said about your family. I know it is a little consequence right now, but I’m sure, someday, it will be.
Let’s all wait now to see how many women post a picture of themselves and they’re adopted child from another country, and with a different skin color. I’m waiting…
As a follow-up to my recent comment, all of you women that have trash talk. This family need to remember that your day of judgment will come. I don’t think it will go unnoticed that trash in this instance. Awesome, when I went back to read my post, I didn’t noticed that the word bigotry was spelled out to be big. A tree. Make no mistake, for all of you that have made the Mars your target, consider shedding your nasty mouths, and instead, do something in your life that is helpful. Helpful. If you do, maybe you won’t be judged as harshly as you deserve.