Fighting Back
As the spotlight brings scrutiny to Fixer Upper’s Chip and Joanna Gaines, they defend their marriage and dismiss the critics.
“We continue to make mistakes, and these days we work even harder to learn from them and get better.” — Joanna
In the face of controversy, Chip and Joanna Gaines aren’t afraid to set the record straight
More renovations are coming. Chip and Joanna Gaines are halfway through filming Season 5 of Fixer Upper, sure to feature plenty of turning wrecks into gems. But while they work their magic on rundown homes, Chip and Joanna have a more personal project to deal with: calming fans who believe the designing duo’s 14-year marriage is headed for divorce. “Please don’t break up,” begged one Fixer Upper fan on Twitter, while another declared, “That’s the only thing that [will] make me cry!” A third supporter offered this sad take on the relationship drama: “Love as we know it will officially die if these two split.”
The speculation can come to a stop. Chip and Joanna are now speaking out to defend their marriage and address the divorce rumors. “Won’t ever happen,” Chip said on Aug. 4. “You can take that to the bank!” It’s just the latest controversy the wildly popular couple has had to tackle over the last year. From a contentious lawsuit filed by their former business partners to backlash over their religious beliefs about gay marriage, the pair has been under attack. And they aren’t afraid to be frank while setting the record straight. “At this point in our career,” says Joanna, “we can honestly say we’ve heard it all!”
OPPOSITES ATTRACT
Chip, 42, and Joanna, 39, are the first to admit their marriage isn’t perfect. “There were times when we would fight like cats and dogs,” says Chip, who notes that Jo spent much of their first year of marriage crying. “But there was just something about her. We’d work through it. Whatever stupid mistake I made — and there was plenty of stuff that set her off — we’d find a way to get through it, and we’d wind up being even closer to each other in the end.”
In fact, their relationship almost ended before it even started when Chip showed up 90 minutes late for their first date, and then didn’t call for a second date until months later. “Match made in heaven is not the term you would use to describe us,” says Jo, who is a reserved rule follower while wild-child Chip likes to push the boundaries. “But when we mixed our personalities together, it created a spark.”
That spark has suited them well as they’ve sometimes had to defend their marriage to the public. In December, an online headline screamed “Chip & Joanna Gaines Admit Marital Problems,” while another in March questioned “Fixer Upper Couple Divorce: Are Chip and Joanna Finished?” The stories contained nothing substantive. But the most ludicrous thing to Chip has been a series of spam emails claiming that Jo confessed their relationship was on the rocks until an all-natural miracle pill saved their sex life. “Folks are crazy,” says Chip. “I’ve got four children.”
AN UNPLANNED EXIT
Some of their combined 7.5 million Instagram followers and the 5.21 million viewers who tuned in to Fixer Upper’s March finale feared Joanna wasn’t just going to leave Chip. They worried she was leaving the show, too. Her reported reason for quitting? To start her own beauty line. “I’m sad you’ve decided to leave
the show,” bemoaned a Twitter user, with a second fan chiming in, “Don’t leave, but if you do, I get it.”
Jo didn’t get it, because she has zero plans to jump ship. In both April and July, though, the rumors were so widespread, the HGTV star felt forced to release statements. “It’s simply not true,” Joanna says of the idea that she was ditching TV for the cosmetics industry. “This is a scam! We have nothing to do with [any skin care line] and have been trying to stop it for some time.”
The couple are also under fire from former friends. Ex–business partners John Lewis and Richard Clark sued Chip in April, claiming he convinced the men to sell their interest in Magnolia Realty for $2,500 each in 2013 without disclosing that he’d secured a lucrative deal with HGTV that would prominently feature the company. In fact, the lawsuit claims Chip announced the TV deal two days after the sale was finalized. Now
John and Richard are seeking at least $1 million in damages. While John tells Life & Style that they tried to work out the issue with Chip in private for months before the suit was filed, Chip was driven to publicly blast his old buddies. “I’ve had the same cell number 15 years… same email for 20 years,” he noted. “No one called or emailed? Four years later ‘friends’ reach out via lawsuit.”
FAITH UNDER FIRE
In good times and in bad, Chip and Joanna, who have four children, Drake, 12, Ella, 10, Duke, 9 and Emmie, 7, rely on their religion. “Our family has made a commitment to put Christ first, a lifestyle our parents modeled for us very well,” says Chip. “They showed us how to keep our marriage and family centered around God.”
But their affiliation with the Antioch Community Church in their hometown of Waco, Texas, landed them in hot water in November. A scathing and controversial article noted that the institution’s pastor, Jimmy Seibert, is against homosexuality and gay marriage and believes in the widely discredited practice of conversion therapy. Chip and Joanna declined to comment on the scandal at the time, but HGTV was quick to respond, “We don’t discriminate against members of the LGBT community in any of our shows. HGTV is proud to have a crystal clear, consistent record of including people from all walks of life in its series.” Indeed,
“You can’t censor Chip.” — Joanna
in 2014, the network canceled Flip It Forward, a show that was set to star the Benham brothers, David and Jason, after it was revealed the siblings were anti–gay marriage. But what HGTV didn’t address is that their big star, Chip, appeared to be an ally of the brothers. “He called to support us — to say, ‘Guys, I’m in this with you,’” reveals Jason. “The Gaines believe as we do — as millions of other Christians do — that marriage is between a man and a woman.”
Chip finally addressed the Antioch drama with a blog post in January. In it, he insisted he and Jo don’t discriminate against anyone and proclaimed “disagreement is not the same thing as hate.” Not everyone bought the mea culpa. Noah Michelson, an editorial director at Huffington Post, blasted the father of four in the story “I Call Bulls**t on HGTV Star Chip Gaines’ Blog About Anti- Gay Controversy.” “Chip’s response was to write a blog post that
we should be able to ‘ lovingly disagree’ about this issue, that really set me off,” Noah tells Life & Style. “You don’t get to disagree, ‘ lovingly’ or not, on whether I should have the same rights as you or whether or not I should be treated like a normal person.” His suggestion? The Gaineses should meet with GLAAD and feature queer people on their show. “I enjoy Chip and Joanna’s show. I think they are probably very good people,” says Noah. “But if they belong to that church they are co-signing on whatever the church is saying. If they personally disagree with what the church is saying, they have a couple options. One, they can leave that church. Two, they can speak out and say we love this church, but we really disagree with what they are saying and we would love to meet with the head of the church and talk about how we can come to terms with this. Or they have to say they agree with what the church is saying and deal with the consequences that come with that.”
BETTER TOGETHER
Not all matters Chip and Joanna choose to speak out about are so weighty. A seemingly harmless article that suggested the couple may consider a temporary move to another city in the future, and used Chip and Jo’s own quotes about loving NYC, Kansas City, Mo., Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, was shot down by the stars just a day after it was posted online. “Waco is our home,” tweeted Joanna. “We love it and we aren’t going anywhere.”
Wherever the duo are, controversy will continue to follow them. But Chip and Joanna have each other to navigate it with. “We function better together than we do apart,” says Jo. “Don’t get me wrong, we’ve certainly had our share of disappointments and arguments, but we just always wanted to tackle our issues together.”