Chip and Joanna Gaines became beloved to their now-massive legion of fans during their days on Fixer Upper. Today, the couple is on track with launching their own network, raising their five kids, and taking on projects they're passionate about.
One of the things people love about Chip and Joanna is how relatable they are. Joanna is very much a fun-loving yet cautious mom who puts her all into everything she does. Chip is your classic goofy dad but also a thoughtful businessman. They're relatable and not the types to let fame get to them.
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Of course, that doesn't mean that they didn't struggle. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey for her Super Soul Sunday series, Chip opened up about some of the complicated feelings he experienced during the height of their Fixer Upper fame.
Chip and Joanna Gaines are the latest power couple sitting down for an interview with Oprah Winfrey. In a setting not unlike the one used in her Harry and Meghan interview, Oprah talked to the Magnolia magnates about their marriage, fame, and more as part of her Super Soul Sunday series.
Oprah talked to the couple about their philosophy of putting their relationship first for the sake of their family.
"One thing I'm so thankful for is that we met each other a little later in life," Joanna confessed.
"Chip was probably one of the oldest of his friends to get married and in that time period, it's like we both … I know for me like as a woman, I figured out, you know, I wanted to be as whole as possible with all the stuff. Like, how can I be whole?"
Joanna explained that she and Chip were not looking for partners to complete them. They wanted partners they could build and grow with, something they definitely found in each other.
"But I think as much as we cannot rely on each other to fill us up, that's not our job, it's to come together and partner together. Then we're the best for our children," Joanna noted.
"So it's got to be in that priority, in our minds, in our heart and in our home, that we're healthy and whole so that our children, what trickles down to them, is health and wholeness as well," she explained.
Later on, Oprah talked about the changes that come as a person gets famous. "I have discovered that fame is just, your life is the same, you're the same, and everybody has an idea of what that is, it's just more people know your name. And I think if you don't know who you are when the fame thing hits then you lose yourself," she shared.
"Did you all start to sense that, or did you know that you were grounded before the fame thing hit?" Oprah asked, then — relating it to their hiatus from TV — asked if they "took the time off because [they] wanted to reground?"
"I want to speak on Jo's behalf, because she would never say things like this, but she is so incredibly wise, so incredibly grounded — all the things that you just described, is who Joanna is," Chip gushed.
But while it came effortlessly to Joanna, Chip admitted that he struggled with it in the early years of Fixer Upper.
"Really what happened — and was the truth for Jo and I — was it was no big deal for her, but for me to become famous, I lost a part of myself that was really … it was sad," he admitted.
"I would say it took me a year or two while I was still filming to try to grapple with what exactly it was that I was losing."
The two took a year off from anything television related after the end of Fixer Upper. They focused on other projects professionally. Personally, Joanna and Chip worked to figure out some of what was going on.
Chip shared that the two decided to "hunker down and really kind of try to unpack what it was about fame that seemed so incompatible with my personality."
In a January 2019 interview, Chip shared similar feelings about fame. "TV was a funny thing for me," he said.
"I'm an authentic, sincere person. So, as long as things are natural and organic, I'm in my element. But the more staged something becomes, or the more required something becomes, it boxes me up," he noted.
"I felt like toward the end of the Fixer Upper journey, I felt caged, trapped."
"Jo and I couldn't figure it out. I mean, why? You're getting to have all this fun, right?" he reasoned.
"But it's like if I put a camera in your face and said, 'Hey, say something funny.' Or if I put a camera in your face and said, 'Hey, be smart.' I just struggled with that environment. Especially at the end of it."
Chip and Joanna have gained perspective and are happy to be back at it. With the health crisis pushing back production, the newest iteration, Fixer Upper: Welcome Home, will debut on the Magnolia app on July 15. The network is set for debut in 2022, so we can expect episodes to air on TV then.
