For many decades now, being a massive celebrity has meant living most of your life in one of two places: New York City or Los Angeles. For those who work in the film and television industry, the L.A. area was generally the locale they called home, but the past several years have seen more and more famous folk decide to abandon the city for one reason or another. Now, Windy City Rehab star Alison Victoria, who just launched Sin City Rehab on the 2025 TV schedule, has opened up about why she left Chicago behind.
Why Did Windy City Rehab’s Alison Victoria Move Away From Chicago?
Everyone knows that there have been major changes going on in the entertainment industry for many years now, and one of those has involved the number of celebrities who’ve given up on living in Los Angeles. Many of them, like Chris Evans (who left for the east coast), Jason Statham and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (the engaged couple returned to London in 2020), cite family as the reason for the big move. But, when HGTV’s Alison Victoria decided to leave her life in Chicago, it had more to do with work than anything else.
The Windy City Rehab host recently spoke with House Beautiful about her new show, Sin City Rehab (which you can watch with your HBO Max subscription), which sees her now helping hopeful homeowners in Las Vegas find/remodel their dream abodes. When asked why she relocated to the casino-filled city, Victoria said bluntly:
My creativity was dying in Chicago, and I felt that in my work.
Wow. I cannot imagine what it’s like to feel that a location someone was born, raised in and called home for decades as an adult is actually making it harder to be creative, but seeing as how Victoria relies on that ability to get her job done, I do totally understand the need to pull up stakes ASAP.
While the move wasn’t a completely random decision, as Victoria already had a home in Vegas and had previously lived there in her late teens and early twenties, once she realized how Chicago was making her feel, she had to go, and explained:
After what I went through with the multiple lawsuits and the building department in Chicago… It’s like you’re in a relationship, right? I was in a relationship with the city that I loved and lived in, and then it didn’t treat me well. It just didn’t, and I needed a break. I just needed to get out of there. I wasn’t my happiest self; I wasn’t living my best life.
Fans will remember that it was shortly after Victoria and her former business partner/co-host, Donovan Eckhardt, hit the big time with the first season of Windy City Rehab that lawsuits began to rain down on the duo. That eventually turned into Eckhardt suing HGTV and the show’s producers, and the series showing the breakdown of their partnership. All of that business turmoil, coupled with the city’s winters beginning to feel bleaker as time went on, led her to leave with a quickness. As she added:
I literally up and left. I left the most beautiful dream home, which is just perfect. It’s just stuck the way that I left it—fully furnished, all my clothes are there. I just was like, ‘I’m out.’
Talk about intense, right? Now that Victoria has been relocated for about a year, she’s feeling “excited” about expanding her design business in the famed city. Which means that more great episodes will be coming along for fans.