Home renovation royalty! Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines have turned their original Magnolia Market into a massive, multimedia empire, but it all started with their romance.
Soon after meeting by chance in 2001 at Joanna’s father’s repair shop in Waco, Texas, the duo went on their first date. It wasn’t without complications, however — the carpenter was more than an hour late to pick up his future wife.
“He didn’t even have a plan for our date,” the Kansas native recalled in the couple’s 2016 memoir, The Magnolia Story. “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.”
Despite the potentially rocky start, the duo hit it off right away, getting engaged in 2002 and tying the knot the following year. After their wedding, they got down to business. Chip had started flipping homes before meeting Joanna, who quickly became his in-house decorator.
Just five months after their wedding, the pair opened the first iteration of the home goods shop, Magnolia Market, in Waco. Eventually, their burgeoning renovation business caught the attention of HGTV executives, who tapped the duo to host a show called Fixer Upper.
After premiering in May 2013, the series became one of the network’s most popular shows ever, spawning a spinoff titled Fixer Upper: Behind the Design. The couple ended the show in April 2018 after five seasons, partly because it was putting too much stress on their family. The duo are parents to five kids: Drake, Ella, Duke, Emmie Kay and Crew.
“We realized we didn’t necessarily love that side of the camera, and that part became a full-time job,” Joanna told The Hollywood Reporter in June 2021. “We’ve got a big family. We’ve got a business. The show ended up where we had to constantly be feeding it.”
The series, however, was just the beginning. In October 2015, the twosome opened Magnolia Market at the Silos, a 20,000-square-foot grain barn in downtown Waco that houses a bakery, nursery and other stores. They’ve since opened a restaurant called Magnolia Table and a coffee shop called Magnolia Press, and in July 2021, they launched their own channel.
Originally available to stream via Discovery+, the Magnolia Network hit cable in January 2022 with a Fixer Upper reboot subtitled Welcome Home and tons of other original programming.
“We can’t stop cable from dying, that’s not our mission,” Joanna told THR of her plans for the network. “But while it’s still available, we hope you spend an hour or five with us and leave feeling like it was time well spent.”
Sign up for Us Weekly's free, daily newsletter and never miss breaking news or exclusive stories about your favorite celebrities, TV shows and more!
Keep scrolling for a look back at the Gaines’ complete relationship timeline:
