*A North Carolina couple who appeared on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” in 2012 with their five foster children are now being accused of kicking the kids out of their home after the cameras stopped rolling.
“[They] threw us all out,” said Chris Friday, referring to his foster parents Devonda and James Friday.
Chris and Kamaya Friday, who are now adults, told WSOC Charlotte, “I know it was all about the money. From the first day, it was all about the money.”
James and Devonda wrote to the show back in 2011, explaining how they “desperately” needed a home makeover for their 7 children, including 5 foster kids.
The Fridays presented themselves as evangelists who operated a nonprofit organization called House of Hope. The show awarded them a 3,900-square-foot home so the five foster children, who are biological siblings, will no longer have to share bedrooms. They were also given a storefront lease for House of Hope.
Now two of their foster children, who took on the couples’ last name, are speaking out against the Fridays for kicking all five of them out of the home within a year after appearing on the show.
“My brother and sisters were 5-years-old. How can they get that much trouble where they have to kick them out?” Chris said. “I felt like they were my mom and dad. I loved them like they were my real parents” he added. “What they did to us was just wrong. [They] threw us all out.”
Chris said he was sent to a group home because of his “bad attitude” a few months after the family’s episode was filmed but was told it was temporary.
“Why did I have to leave? I just didn’t understand it. And it made me feel not wanted, you know?” he said.
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His sister Kamaya was also sent to a group home a few months later with the same promise of returning.
“You gave me away. Parents don’t do that. No,” Kamaya told the television station. Kamaya and Chris said within a year, the Fridays kicked out all five of their foster kids.
“My brother and sisters were 5-years-old. How can they get that much trouble where they have to kick them out?” Chris Friday said.
He claims the Fridays were motivated by money.
“I know it was all about the money. From the first day, it was all about the money,” Chris Friday said.
“That’s all [Devonda’s] about, money. It’s money with her,” Kamaya also claimed.
James Friday denied their claims, saying, “Listen, no one kicked Chris or Kamaya out of the home,” he told WSOC-TV. He added that they wanted to leave and that the Department of Social Services became involved regarding the three younger children.
“That’s a DSS and social service matter,” he said but would not explain further.
He also denies claims that he and his wife misused the Sears gift cards that ABC gave them.
“That’s ridiculous. That’s ridiculous. We bought 200 pairs of shoes with those gift cards at Sears for a church uptown that was doing mission work. We’ve done no wrong,” he said.
“They went to court trying to get us all back, but I think it was about the money, too,” Chris Friday said, in reference to a 2015 family court hearing.
“The judge he gets upset and is like, ‘You leave these kids life for a whole year, then try to come back a year later and say you want them back. It doesn’t work like that,'” Kamaya said.
Chris and Kamaya plan to change their last name. Their three younger siblings are all in different group homes.
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