Ty Pennington Jokes ‘The Years Have Been Unkind’ In Catfish Challenge
2 min readTy Pennington is proving he doesn’t take himself too seriously with his latest Instagram video!
The Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Trading Spaces alum, 56, who currently stars in the HGTV show Ty Breaker, took to Instagram on Monday to share a hilarious video of himself, above, participating in the “Catfish Challenge.” The social media trend encourages users to post their best “catfish” photo (them looking their absolute best) and then compares it to what they actually look like at the moment.
To start the video, Pennington shows a photo of himself posing on a bed in his younger years, shirtless but wearing a red pendant necklace and a pair of dark jeans. His hair is spiky and he’s donning a goatee beard, much like he did while hosting Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
“Show your catfish pic vs. right now,” the text on the video reads, with a voiceover reading the message aloud. The song that plays in the background is used on TikTok for “Catfish Challenge” videos. When the beat drops, Pennington pops into the video, singing and smiling, and, of course, looking significantly older.
“The years have been…. Unkind,” the TV host jokingly captioned the Instagram post, adding a laugh-crying emoji.
Several of Pennington’s HGTV colleagues commented on the post, laughing along with him.
“Hysterical,” wrote Bargain Mansions‘ Tamara Day, adding several laugh-crying emojis, while designer Carrie Locklyn wrote, “Amazing!!!! Like fine wine my friend like fine wine.”
HGTV Dream Home‘s Tiffany Brooks also commented “I just SCREAMED!!!” while Rock the Block‘s Mika Kleinschmidt added, “Stop you look awesome and the best part is you are genuine and still full of the same amount of energy!!!”
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One way that Pennington stays young is through traveling and pursuing passion projects with his fiancée, Kellee Merrell, 33, whom he proposed to in July.
A rep for Pennington told PEOPLE at the time that the star popped the question to Merrell — a social media manager originally from Vancouver — over morning coffee on the dock of his home in Palm Coast, Florida.
The pair met in 2010 while Pennington was filming a TV show in Toronto and have stayed connected over the years through mutual friends. They reconnected in early 2020 and decided to quarantine together, during which their relationship blossomed even further.
“I have admired Kellee from afar for years. She’s a beautiful person inside and out,” Pennington tells PEOPLE exclusively. “Luckily our paths finally crossed at the right time. It’s one of those things where you just feel happy being around a person. I never thought I would get married, but she changed that. Glad I waited for the one.”
Pennington and Merrell recently purchased a 19th-century house together in Savannah, Georgia, and are currently renovating it into their dream home.
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