The Former Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Family That Evicted Their Kids After The Show - The List

The Former Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Family That Evicted Their Kids After The Show - The List,One family on "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" got a renovated home after adopting five children, but those kids say they were kicked out after the show.

The Former Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Family That Evicted Their Kids After The Show – The List

“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” is beloved for providing in-need families with gorgeous homes. With its charming hosts, creative room designs, and fun-filled family vacations, it’s no wonder the reality TV show was such a success and continues to receive praise to this day.

We’d all like to believe it’s happily ever after for the families once the episode’s over, but not every “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition story” has a happy ending. This is especially true for the infamous Friday family, who appeared in a Christmas 2012 episode. Devonda and James Friday seemingly had hearts of gold. In the family’s audition tape, the former police officer and her husband tearfully claimed that their biggest motivation in life was helping children. “I love children. That’s where my heart is,” Devonda said. Her husband echoed her sentiments in the video, stating, “Children are brought into the world without a say.”

Their words sounded nice. In fact, the hosts were swayed enough by the Fridays that they were selected as the lucky family to get a brand-new, 3,900-square-foot home (via PR Newswire). Unfortunately, the couple’s actions didn’t quite reflect their words. The Fridays were accused of using their adopted children to get a new house before heartlessly disowning them once the project was completed.

The children were separated, sent to different group homes

Devonda and James Friday really did appear to be a caring, providing couple. They were the biological parents of two children and said they have housed around 30 foster children. In 2011, they decided to extend their family. The Fridays adopted five adorable siblings from foster care, hoping the brothers and sisters would no longer have to be separated from one another. The group was nicknamed “The Fab Five.” It wouldn’t take long for the kids to become smitten with their new parents. They even called Devonda and James mom and dad and changed their last names to Friday.

In a cruel twist that’s giving Tuohy family vibes, Devonda and James allegedly shattered the illusion of them being a big, happy family just months after their episode aired. In an interview with WSOC-TV, Kamaya and Chris, two of “The Fab Five,” explained that James and Devonda wasted no time in kicking them and their siblings out of their new home once the camera crews were gone. The elder siblings said they were told they had a “bad attitude” by their adoptive parents and were sent to live in separate group homes.

It didn’t take long before their other siblings, who were all around the age of five, were also sent away to group homes. “My brothers and sisters were five years old. How can they get into that much trouble where they have to kick them out?” Chris wanted to know.

The siblings say it was all about the money for the Fridays

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The timing of when the Fridays decided to adopt and then kick out their children was questionable, to say the least. The family adopted the children the same year their episode was filmed. According to Kamaya and Chris, the Fridays kicked them and their siblings out within a year of the episode’s air date.

Kamaya believes that money was the reason behind the eviction. “That’s all [Devonda’s] about. Money. It’s money with her,” Kamaya said in her interview with WSOC-TV. The eldest daughter of “The Fab Five” also accused the matriarch of stealing. The showrunners of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” donated multiple gift cards to the couple’s nonprofit store “House of Hope,” but Kamaya has claimed those gift cards were used by Devonda for herself. Worse yet, she said the checks sent by the Department of Social Services for the five children were also used on Devonda. “She’d get a check for all five of us from DSS [the Department of Social Services] and we’d say, ‘You’re getting money from us, can’t you get us clothes?’ We were in the same clothes all the time,” Kamaya told People.

Devonda has yet to formally comment on the accusations, but WSOC-TV was able to get a statement from James. James claimed that Chris and Kamaya “wanted to leave” the family. As for their younger siblings, James placed the blame for their departure from the home on the Department of Social Services. He also called the allegations of theft “ridiculous.”