Chip and Joanna Gaines are the former stars of HGTV’s hit show Fixer Upper. The series, which ran from May 2013 to April 2018, focused on the couple’s home renovation and redecoration business in Waco, Texas. Chip and Joanna left the show to work on a new project with Discovery.
The development of the couple’s cable network has experienced challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it is set to roll out in 2020. Chip and Joanna will star on the network’s signature show.
The couple’s relationship has come under sharp focus since they became celebrities. We can confirm that Chip and Joanna are still married.
Chip and Joanna recently celebrated their 17th marriage anniversary and stated that they have avoided divorce by facing challenges together
On 31st May 2020, Chip and Joanna celebrated 17 years of marriage. Chip posted a photo of the couple on Instagram and attached the caption:
“Everything about you has made everything about me better. And 17 years later I’m still learning from and loving on the most incredible woman in the world. After all these years Joanna Lea Stevens, you really are the girl of my dreams. Happy 17th girl. I love you.”
The couple has welcomed five children throughout their marriage: Drake, Ella, Duke, Emmie and Crew. Chip and Joanna make marriage look easy, but they admit to going through many challenges. They have gone through dire financial times, people have filed lawsuits against them, and they have been the subject of many divorce rumors.
The above are just a few of the challenges that the pair has experienced and overcome. Chip and Joanna told God Updates that they have avoided divorce by tackling challenges together. Chip stated:
“We’re this odd yin and yang, this whole opposites attract. It really was this powerful chemistry that happened early in our marriage… I would argue that at the end of the day, we learned early that we’re a lot stronger and powerful when we’re pulling together, as opposites to pulling against each other. We’re a powerful force when we operate like that.”
Chip waited for over a month before calling Joanna after their first date so he could win a bet
Chip and Joanna first met after he took his car to her father’s workshop to get the brakes done. The couple talked for a while, and the next day, Chip called Joanna and asked her out on a date. Unfortunately, Chip arrived to pick up Joanna one and a half hours after the agreed time.
Joanna revealed in the couple’s memoir, The Magnolia Story that she was quite angry, but Chip managed to charm her into going for the date. She wrote:
“Finally, at seven-thirty, a full ninety minutes late, he knocked at the door. ‘Don’t even answer it,’ I whispered to my friends. ‘I don’t want to go anywhere with this idiot.’ … He didn’t apologize for being late, either. He had so much confidence. I don’t know. I can’t explain it. Only Chip could be an hour and a half late and have no one mad about it.”
The couple ate fried chicken on what was a successful date. However, Chip waited for over a month before calling Joanna so that he could win a bet. “I really wanted that fifty dollars from John!” Chip wrote in The Magnolia Story. “That’s the only reason I didn’t call.”