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Joanna Gaines Shares Rare Photo of Her Parents Jerry and Nan Stevens

Joanna Gaines
Joanna Gaines Rob Kim/Getty Images

Joanna Gaines has great genes! The Fixer Upper alum shared a rare picture of her parents Nan and Jerry Stevens on Monday, November 12. 

Related: Joanna and Chip Gaines’ Sweet Family Photo Album

In the throwback photo posted on Instagram, a shirtless Jerry sat on top of a Jeep with Nan, who was sporting rose-tinted sunglasses. The snap was taken when Jerry was stationed in North Korea during the Vietnam War. 

The couple met at a social gathering in Seoul, Korea, and tied the knot in 1972. “Interesting enough, the way my mother tells it, she spotted my dad sitting off by himself in a corner at that party and said to a friend of hers, ‘That’s the man I’m going to marry,’” Joanna, 40, revealed in her book, The Magnolia Story. “Her friends thought she was crazy, but she says she just knew.”

Related: Chip and Joanna Gaines Through the Years

In her New York Times bestseller, Joanna revealed that Jerry and Nan weren’t always so happy together. “From what they’ve told me, they actually had a rocky marriage for several years,” the former HGTV personality wrote. “There were times, they say, when they didn’t think they would make it because all they did was fight.”

But the pair worked through their issues and in 2016 Joanna Instagrammed that “they’ve never been stronger.”

Joanna and husband Chip Gaines owe their marriage to Jerry! Joanna was working at her dad’s Firestone Tire Store in Waco, Texas, in 2001 when customer Chip, now, 40, walked into the shop! The couple tied the knot in 2003, and are parents of Drake, Ella, 11, Duke, 10, Emmie Kay 8, and 5-month-old baby boy Duke.

Related: Celebrity Couples and How They First Met

The former HGTV personalities announced earlier this month that they will be returning to television with their own Discovery network show. Fixer Upper premiered in 2013 and the finale aired in April 2018. 

“I think we’re gonna really carve it out in a way that really makes sense to us and our family,” Chip explained on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “It’s gonna be filmed a lot in Waco, Texas, so we don’t have to travel a lot.”

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