Carly Hughes leaves American Housewife due to "toxic environment," ABC promises "positive changes"

By Sam Barsanti | November 10, 2020 | 3:42am

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Carly Hughes leaves American Housewife due to "toxic environment," ABC promises "positive changes"

Carly Hughes Photo: Frazer Harrison

According to a report from Deadline, American Housewife regular Carly Hughes has decided to leave the ABC comedy show, citing “discrimination” and a “toxic environment” on set. Her final episodes as a series regular were in last year’s fourth season, and while she did appear in the season five premiere, that’s it for her time on the show. Deadline’s story doesn’t contain specific allegations, but Hughes said in a statement that she chose to leave to “protect herself” from a toxic environment, adding, “As a Black woman in entertainment, I feel the responsibility to stand up for what I deserve, what we all deserve—to be treated equally.” Hughes, for the record, was the only Black series regular on the show, and played one of Katy Mixon’s best friends.

It sounds like she did raise her concerns to production company ABC Signature a while back, which prompted an “extensive HR investigation” into her claims and “claims from other production team members.” Again, without saying specifically what those claims were or what the investigation determined, Deadline says series creator Sarah Dunn is no longer an “active producer” on the show, that line producer Mark J. Greenberg has stepped down, and showrunners Rick Wiener and Kenny Schwartz have undergone “sensitivity training.” A spokesperson for American Housewife told Deadline that they had hoped Hughes would reconsider and stay with the show, as the issues she raised “led to positive changes to the workplace and improvements to the culture,” but they “respect the decision she made to move on.”