Candace Owens has revealed that interior designer David Netto told her husband he would “rather be beaten up with a wooden board” than work on their Nashville home.
Conservative commentator Owens said her husband, British businessman George Farmer, wrote “the most polite email” approaching Netto, complaining that his reply would be deemed unacceptable if it had been sent to a “black liberal.”
She added, “They would have said it looked like Jim Crow.”
The mother of two, 33, opened up about the feud in a lengthy interview with Vanity pursein which she talked about her media career as an outspoken black Republican, why she no longer supports Donald Trump – and even a possible candidacy for her own office.
The brand sparked controversy at Paris Fashion Week last year when she tweeted a photo of herself and Kanye West in White Lives Matter T-shirts.
Candace Owens and husband George Farmer at their Nashville home, where Farmer asked interior designer David Netto if he wanted to work on it after seeing his designs at a friend’s house
Farmer and Owens are a divisive pair over the businessman who runs the “free speech platform” Parler, popular with the far right, and Owens’ role as an outspoken black Republican
Interior designer David Netto told Farmer he would ‘rather be hit in the a** with a wooden plank’ than go near the couple
The incident brought Owens into the spotlight and preceded the musician’s descent into anti-Semitic tirades on Twitter, including praise for Hitler.
Owens was criticized for not condemning West on her Daily Wire show, which has one and a half million subscribers and is broadcast as a podcast and on YouTube.
It was during the fashion show that West introduced her to Farmer, with the rapper later buying the businessman’s “free speech platform” Parler, which is popular with the far right.
The site has been banned by Apple, Google and Amazon for allowing hate speech and is popular with Trump supporters, including some who took part in the U.S. Capitol unrest on Wednesday.
Owens spoke of Netto’s hostile response after saying she had been treated kindly by Nashville locals and even spoke of a positive encounter with Kamala Harris at the airport, whom she described as “really nice.”
Owens said she approached the vice president and added, “I can’t help it. I told her I wouldn’t vote for her, and she said, ‘Yeah, okay. I understand.” It was a very nice conversation.”
She said her husband contacted Netto, who writes about design for the New York Times, after the couple saw his work in one of their friends’ homes.
“My husband wrote the most polite email because he’s always polite, he’s very English,” Owens said. “We didn’t know if we could afford a designer or something.”
She said Net wrote back, “Dear George, thank you for your question. I’d rather get beaten up with a wooden plank than ever go near one of you. Best regards, David.’
Owens suggested that if a “white conservative man” had sent the brutality to “an outspoken black liberal, he would have lost everything.”
Owens gained notoriety after she tweeted a photo last year of her and musician Kanye West wearing White Lives Matter T-shirts at Paris Fashion Week
Owens said that the Nashville locals were usually nice to her in public and even had a “really nice conversation” with Vice President Kamala Harris when she bumped into her at the airport
Owens and Farmer have previously met Donald Trump on several occasions, including at the White House in 2020, before Owens withdrew her support for the former president after speaking out in favor of the Covid vaccine
Netto told Vanity Fair that Owens and Farmer “were complicit in something very dangerous,” referring to Parler’s popularity with some of those involved in the Capitol riots.
Netto told Vanity Fair that he had only addressed Farmer and that it was about “morality,” not race. He added: “After January 6, the joke is over. People like this should expect to be recognized as complicit in something really dangerous – and I don’t mean Kanye – and expect to be told off in polite society.
“Without Parler, the Proud Boys wouldn’t be able to talk to each other, so that’s enough for me… They’ll find someone to do their house, and I’m sure it will be nice.”
Owens was previously a vocal cheerleader for Trump, but withdrew her support after the Republican candidates he supported in the midterm failed to win their seats.
She said on her Daily Wire show that she distrusted the former president because he was rude to her after an interview where they clashed over the COVID-19 vaccine.
Owens had previously criticized Trump, saying he lost contact with his supporters after speaking out in favor of the vaccine. Trump then turned on her, she claimed.
But she suggested to Vanity Fair that she hadn’t ruled out supporting him for the Republican nomination, nor running for president herself.
Owens said she would “like to see who’s in 2024” and “who has the best vision” before deciding who to support.
Of a possible run of her own, she said she would “never say never.” “You could have talked to me seven years ago and told me I was going to vote for Trump, work for the Daily Wire, I would have told you to take it easy on the drugs,” she added. “And so I follow the perspective that we have our plans and God is smiling.”