Chip and Joanna Gaines of hit show Fixer Upper fame recently opened up about their private lives on Super Soul, Oprah Winfrey’s new show. Here are some newly-emerged facts about the couple:
Neither of them is from Texas
Despite having shot to fame after renovating homes in Waco, Texas, neither Chip nor Joanna belongs to Texas. About this, Chip said on Super Soul, “I was a transplant. I was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico—so, for the first about seven, eight years of my life. And Jo was born in Kansas. But we both ended up in Texas.”
It’s great that both of them ended up in Texas—had Chip and Jo met in Kansas or New Mexico, Fixed Upper would’ve been a different show altogether.
Between the two, Chip struggled more with fame
Chip is the more outgoing one between the two, so he was surprised that he didn’t find fame suitable. He told Winfrey that while he felt he’d lost a part of himself, Joanna handled the fame well. He said, “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.” He added, “And then that year off, I think that Jo and I were able to kind of hunker down and kind of try to unpack what it was about fame that seemed so incompatible with my personality.” However, Chip managed to find a way to deal with his celebrity status.
The Gaines don’t own a TV
Chip and Joanna have their network, but not a TV. The two are famously huge fans of the TV-less lifestyle. In almost all their renovations too, they skip finding a place for TVs.
The couple explained that it all started when they were engaged and went to marriage counseling. They were encouraged to avoid getting a TV after getting married and instead spend quality time together. They got by one year without a TV then decided to make it through another year. After that, they decided they didn’t need a television at all.
Did these facts surprise you as they did us?