Where's Donovan Eckhardt, the Former Lead Contractor on ‘Windy City Rehab’?

Season 4 of HGTV’s Windy City Rehab has officially begun! Let's recap the drama you may have missed. Throughout Season 2, both Alison and lead contractor Donovan Eckhardt dealt with multiple lawsuits related to the projects that were featured on Season 1, which caused a fallout between the former coworkers.

Season 3 mainly focused on Alison, with no signs of Donovan. Social media users have questioned the status of Alison and Donovan's working relationship. So, what happened to Donovan on Windy City Rehab? Here's everything that we know.

According to Cinema Blend, Donovan wasn't just fired from Windy City Rehab in the spring of 2019, but he also filed a lawsuit against Big Table Media and Discovery — the show's production and parent companies — for $2.2 million.

Donovan claimed he suffered emotional distress at the hands of the show's production team after a long string of lawsuits from unsatisfied homeowners who received renovation work on the show. The Chicago Tribune shared that Donovan's suit also claimed that “statements suggesting Donovan misappropriated, embezzled, or wrongfully derived money from past projects are false.” Donovan said that he was painted as the villain, while Alison was portrayed as the “unknowing, innocent victim.”

Unfortunately for Donovan, it appears that his lawsuit has officially been dismissed. According to the Chicago Sun Times, Cook County Judge Patricia O’Brien Sheahan dismissed his lawsuit in July 2021, noting that "his contract stated that any legal disputes must be settled in a California court."

Cinema Blend shares that Donovan's attorney, Daniel Hogan, reportedly filed an appeal in the hopes of having that decision overturned. However, it's not yet known if the lawsuit will be re-filed in California.

These days, it seems that Donovan is determined to move forward. The former reality star's Instagram is filled of photos and videos of him working on renovation projects.

There's nothing worse than having to face multiple lawsuits for claims of defective and shoddy work when you work in renovation, but both Alison and Donovan have. One Chicago couple claimed that the day after they closed on their house (the renovation of which was featured in an episode of Season 1), an upstairs bathroom started leaking gallons of water into the kitchen below it. An inspector also found that nearly every window had been installed wrong. The couple brought a lawsuit against Alison and Donovan — and they weren’t the only ones to do so.

Another couple experienced similar issues with their Chicago home and also brought a lawsuit against the Windy City Rehab hosts. Then, yet another lawsuit cropped up when a former friend of Donovan’s claimed that he (along with his family) had invested millions of dollars in the projects featured on the show, only to find out later that Donovan’s claims of expertise in building in Chicago were fraudulent.

In other words, Donovan found himself in quite a bit of legal trouble. In the premiere episode of Season 2, we saw what appeared to be the beginning of the end of Alison and Donovan’s business partnership and friendship. One episode showed the two of them being turned down for a bank loan. That’s when Alison discovered that most of their renovation budget for an unfinished project — hundreds of thousands of dollars — had apparently been paid out to Donovan’s company without her knowledge.

We know that Alison and Donovan are no longer working together. Since there wasn't any sign of Donovan in Season 3, it's safe to say that Alison can put all the troubles and drama behind her.

Catch new episodes of Windy City Rehab Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST on HGTV.