‘It Wasn’t Love at First Sight’: A Look at Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Sweet Southern Love Story
From missed sparks to Magnolia Market, see how Chip and Joanna turned love into a lifestyle empire
Chip and Joanna Gaines are one of the most beloved couples in the United States thanks to their playful dynamic, southern charm and good old-fashioned family values. The couple, who currently reside in Waco, Texas, became famous way back in 2013 when they debuted their home renovation show Fixer Upper on HGTV. The show ran for five seasons and the couple has since created a home decor empire called Magnolia, which includes a large shopping center in Texas, a decor line in Target and a cable channel. Through that fame and fortune, though, one thing has remained true: Chip and Joanna are still head over heels in love with each other. Below, we look at how their southern fairy tale came to be and give you an update on their five children. Read on for more.
How Chip and Joanna Gaines first met
Chip, 50, and Joanna, 47, met in 2001 at her dad’s auto shop—although it was later revealed that she was initially interested in Chip’s roommate. Despite that, though, Joanna decided to give Chip a chance, and the two eventually went on a date, which, of course, started with Chip being an hour-and-a-half late.
“It wasn’t love at first sight for Chip and me. For one thing, I was typically attracted to guys who were more on the quiet side,” Joanna wrote in a 2020 issue of The Magnolia Journal, per People. “In my mind, I somewhat instinctively checked his penchant for risk and chatty nature as two reasons we probably wouldn’t go on a second date.”
Somehow, though, Chip won Joanna over and the two then got engaged in 2002. They then got married on May 31, 2003, the same year they decided to begin flipping houses together and opened their first-ever home decor store, Magnolia Market.
From Fixer Upper to Magnolia Market: The rise of a home-improvement empire
After the opening of Magnolia Market in 2002, the sky truly became the limit for Chip and Joanna.
In 2013, they began filming Season 1 of their hit HGTV show Fixer Upper, which followed the two of them as they flipped houses all through the Waco, Texas area. Then, in 2015 they bought a pair of abandoned cotton silos and moved Magnolia Market to that same area, hopeful that it would help attract even more business.
And it did. Within the next year, the two launched their magazine, The Magnolia Journal, opened up a cafe and a bed and breakfast and published a memoir entitled The Magnolia Story. They also continued to film Fixer Upper for two more years while continuing to grow Magnolia Market, which is now over 2.6 acres and has a bakery, restaurant, home decor store and more.
They launched a home decor line at Target in 2017—the same year their HGTV show ended.
What Chip and Joanna Gaines are doing now
Chip and Joanna are still flipping houses and maintaining their TV stardom, thanks to their new cable TV channel, Magnolia Network, a rebrand of the DIY Network. They also released a new show on Discovery+ entitled Welcome Home in 2021. It only had one season.
Along with all of that, they worked to restore a 100-year-old castle in Waco, Texas. This process was documented in the 2022 mini-series Fixer Upper: Welcome Home—The Castle. They then renovated a lake house in Waco, Texas and showed it on the 2024 limited series Fixer Upper: The Lakehouse.
Chip and Joanna have also ventured into the podcast space, thanks to their podcast network Blind Nil Audio, which was launched in 2023. They also published several different books in the home, lifestyle, food and children’s space.
Finally, Joanna and Chip are gearing up to release a reality show entitled Back to the Frontier, which challenges the contestants to live like people did back in the 1800s. It begins airing on July 10 on the Magnolia Network.
Meet Chip and Joanna Gaines’ kids
Chip and Joanna have five children, all of whom have been featured on at least one of their shows at some point over the years: Crew, Drake, Ella, Duke and Emmie.
Their eldest son, Drake, 20, is their oldest, and he was born in February 2005. He was named after the Drake Hotel in New York City, where Chip and Joanna had their honeymoon. He is now in college.
Second is daughter Ella, 18, who was born in October 2006 and reportedly really likes to garden. She was followed by Duke Gaines, 17, who was born in May 2008 and is apparently the Gaines family jokester; Emmie Kay, 15, born in January 2010 and loves to bake—she even created her own chocolate chip cookie recipe, which you can view here. Their son, Crew Gaines, 7, was born in June 2018 and is the baby of the family. He is now seven years old and apparently loves to go to work with his momma. How sweet is that!
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