Almost by accident, HGTV’s Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines have become instant celebrities thanks to the crazy success of their house renovation show, Fixer Upper. Although they announced in 2017 that they were ending the show, fans are still obsessed with the couple and their company, Magnolia. Although they’re constantly getting dragged into controversies and are followed by divorce rumors wherever they go — at the end of the day, they’re just a couple of no-frills Texans who never expected to become famous.
“All of this sort of fell into our laps,” Chip said in 2016. “We were just living our life out here in little bitty Waco. We had dreams and aspirations like most folks, but this has really been something else.”
Chip and Joanna were renovating and flipping properties since the early 2000s. The couple found fame when a HGTV producer came across a blog post that featured pictures of their flips. “In 2012, a production company saw a photo of one of our flip houses that we had done together,” Joanna said in 2015. “They called us and just said, ‘Hey, we love that you guys do real estate and you guys work together, that’s intriguing.’ From there, that’s where the whole courtship began.”
And it’s Chip and Joanna’s relationship and chemistry that has become the most important component to the success of the show. From watching Chip eat a dead cockroach to gross Joanna out (yep, that actually happened) to seeing Joanna plant flowers in her greenhouse with her four kids, fans feel like they personally know them.
“I think it is their perfect imperfections,” HGTV general manager Allison Page said about why people love the Gaines. “They have the kind of marriage and family you’d want. It’s not perfect. He does silly things, and they occasionally trip over their words or sweat on each other. They are the best of what’s real in life.”
Still want to learn more? Check out the gallery below to learn more facts you didn’t know about Chip and Joanna Gaines.
