Joanna Gaines had huge success with Fixer Upper when it came out in 2013. The show made her and her husband Chip household names, and it led to a number of other business deals and projects.
Fixer Upper went off the air in 2018. And according to The Things, fans quickly began speculating why they’d chosen to end it, when it had been doing so well.
The Real Reason Chip and Joanna Gaines Disappeared
Joanna and Chip said that it was because they wanted more time to focus on their family and their other projects. They had four children at the time, and after the show went off the air, Joanna got pregnant with their fifth one.
A couple of years later, it became clear that the biggest reason they’d taken a break from the spotlight was because they’d partnered with Discovery to work on creating their own network.
When they launched Magnolia Network in 2019, they brought back Fixer Upper as well as several new programs about home renovations, construction, interior decorating, and general lifestyle — including Joanna’s cooking series, Magnolia Table.
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But the network is just one of many parts of the couple’s media and retail empire. Their brand also extends to cafes, social media platforms, public appearances, books, and a magazine.
Joanna has always had a lot on her plate. But according to what she said in a 2022 interview with TODAY, she was planning to take a step back so that she could think about what she really wanted to spend her energy on.
Joanna Reconsidered Her Life Priorities
While promoting her memoir, The Stories We Tell, she told Hoda Kotb that she felt like she was stepping into a new season. She had half her life, and it’d been great. But she wanted to really be intentional about what she carried with her as she moved forward.
Joanna also talked about how the fact that her children were growing up and quickly becoming adults had encouraged her to think more about her life and what her priorities were. While speaking with Hoda, she said that life was moving so fast.
And for her, the biggest thing was just embracing the moment as a mother, as a wife, and then even with Magnolia, that felt like her baby. In her memoir, Joanna opened up about how she was struggling to find her place within the company that she and Chip had built.
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She admitted that it had become such a part of her own identity. Joanna wrote that since 2003, she and her husband had given Magnolia every inch of themselves. And because it had become so intertwined with who they were, sometimes it was difficult to make out where Magnolia ended and where they began.
But during her interview with TODAY, the reality star confessed that even though she was taking some time to check in with herself, she had no intentions to stop being a part of the Magnolia Brand altogether.
She explained that she felt like it was just getting started, so she was excited about what it would grow into. A year later, Joanna talked with HELLO! about what it was like having a son who’d moved out of the house. Her and Chip’s oldest son Drake was 18 at the time and had just gone off to college.
Joanna shared that even though her home hadn’t changed all that drastically since he’d left, she still wanted Drake to feel as if the impression he’d made in their home remained even when he didn’t.
Joanna’s Son Left for College and It Was a Big Change
She also confessed that she never liked change, but her son leaving for college was a different kind of change for a mother. She explained that it was like holding sadness and joy all in one thing.
As for her and Chip, the couple celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2023. Yahoo! reported that Joanna recently went on the This Morning Walk podcast to talk about her relationship and family with the co-hosts Alex Elle and Libby DeLana.
She revealed that over the past two decades, her relationship with Chip had evolved. There was one thing in particular that’d changed between them that really took her by surprise. Chip had always been the funny one in the pairing, and Joanna the more rational one.
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But Joanna shared that as she got older, she became more in touch with her emotions. She said that she felt like she was going through a midlife crisis and went on to explain that she was not super emotional and that Chip was the emotional one.
But she had reportedly turned into something he didn’t understand. He pointed out to Joanna that she’d started to cry all the time, which she justified by saying that she was just making up for the 20 years that she’d been unemotional.
Chip and Joanna Went to South Korea With Her Family
In 2024, the couple and their family shared an experience that was reportedly very important for them all. In the spring issue of their magazine, Magnolia Journal, Joanna wrote about how she and 24 members of her family went to South Korea together.
Her mother is from Seoul, and she’d been saying for years that she wanted to go there with her daughters one day. So, on Christmas Day in 2022, Chip surprised his wife by announcing that they’d all be going to Seoul the following year.
Joanna shared that Seoul was the place where her family’s story began, and she couldn’t wait to experience it for the first time. She wrote that her family got to connect with her mom’s story and her dad’s in a way that made their own feel more complete.
She added that her kids got to see their grandparents in a new light, which she said was the beauty of leaning into their culture and history. They reportedly even got in touch with Joanna’s long-lost aunt while they were there, too.
In an interview with Travel+Leisure about the experience, Joanna confessed that it was odd to say it out loud, but being in Seoul did feel like being home.
