Fixer Upper stars Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines know when they need to take a step back from their thriving design business.
“When you run these races and it feels like there’s one marathon after another. Like [when] you finish a marathon, in the practical sense, well in theory, you take a week off or go recover somewhere,” Chip, 49, said during the Wednesday, May 29, episode of Today, confirming he and wife Joanna, 46, are taking a business hiatus this summer. “But in life, you don’t ever know where the starting line or where the finish line is, so you don’t know when to take these breaks. Jo and I have really tried our best to take these opportunities.”
According to Joanna, the couple’s breaks can range from “a weekend of doing nothing” or having the “intentionality of saying, ‘We’re going to take a break.’”
“In some ways, it’s more of a season where we’re still working but saying yes to other things,” Joanna told hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie. “I think that’s the ebb and flow even of Fixer that we’ve loved. It started as that and it’s evolved into something a little simpler that just works better for our family. It’s the evolution of change.”
Chip and Joanna have been DIY royalty since Fixer Upper premiered on HGTV in 2013, showcasing their home flips in Waco, Texas. After five seasons, the pair took a step back from the show and network.
Chip and Joanna, who are parents of five, returned to their Fixer Upper roots in 2021 with new episodes on Max under their Magnolia network. Chip and Joanna have since starred in Fixer Upper: The Castle, Fixer Upper: The Hotel and Fixer Upper: The Lakehouse renovation spinoffs. May also marks the milestone 10th anniversary of Fixer Upper season 1.
“I feel like we look like babies,” Chip quipped on Wednesday after watching the couple’s 2012 audition tape. “Now we feel like, ‘Wow, 10 years?’ It’s certainly created quite the evolution on my face.”
While marveling over the passage of time, Chip and Joanna are already looking forward to their next milestones.
“I’m turning 50 this year, we’re celebrating our 21st anniversary … to some extent, we feel like we’ve grown up together,” Chip said. “The next 10 years, I’ll be like a 60-year-old man [and going] to be a grandfather. And then [having] Crew. … I’m modeling my life after Larry King, you know? I think I’m gonna be this Larry King-like character walking across the stage with my 18-year-old but also a grandparent on the other side. So, it’ll be interesting to see what the next 10 years [hold.]”
Chip and Joanna share Drake, 19, Ella Rose, 17, Duke, 16, Emmie Kay, 15, and Crew, 5. Drake recently finished his second year of college at Baylor University while Crew will start kindergarten in the fall.
