Joanna Gaines, 48, is no stranger to dwelling in aesthetically pleasing homescapes. But perhaps her most notable home is the emotional one she’s built with her husband Chip Gaines, 51. The couple, who became household names from starring in the HGTV series Fixer Upper, are celebrating a marriage milestone, close to a quarter of a century. On May 31, Joanna took to her Instagram, sharing a series of photos celebrating her 23rd year of marriage with her husband and co-collaborator.
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‘My forever sweet home. Happy Anniversary @chipgaines #23,’ she captioned the post, which featured a carousel of images with Chip throughout the years, including a shot from their wedding day in 2003.
Joanna’s post was met with equally adoring messages from fans of the Gaines’, with one user commenting, “Happy Anniversary to the sweetest couple” and another adding, “Your forever fixer upper !! 😍Happy anniversary!!”
Related: Joanna Gaines Reveals the Inspirational Message That Starts Her Work Days
The Gaines’ Love Story
The couple first met in 2001 at Joanna’s father’s auto shop in Waco, Texas, before getting engaged a year later. In the early dating stage, Joanna revealed that Chip had the opposite personality of someone she’d usually go for, and initially thought they weren’t a match.
“I was always attracted to quiet guys, to the guy that you didn’t know what he was thinking. When Chip and I went on our first date, he didn’t stop talking! In my mind, I was like, ‘Okay, this isn’t going to work. Because he is not quiet, he’s not mysterious. He’s very just out there.’ . . . Then I heard this voice say, ‘This is who you’re going to marry.’ Call it God, call it whatever. This is the man you’re going to marry,” Joanna told People in 2023.
Now, the couple shares five children and several businesses under their Magnolia empire. The list includes the Magnolia Television Network in collaboration with Warner Bros. Discovery and Max, the quarterly lifestyle print magazine The Magnolia Journal, and the shopping complex Magnolia Market at the Silos in Waco, Texas.
Reminiscing further on their journey, Joanna opened up about the funny mishap that occurred during Chip’s proposal to her in 2002. While appearing alongside her husband as a guest host on Shark Tank in January, Joanna said she thought Chip was having a ‘heart attack’ when he got down on one knee.
“He told me that we were going to go backstage to some singer’s, like a little venue. And so, I show up. He gets down on his knees, but he trips on his jacket,” Joanna said on the episode, which was shared on Shark Tank’s Instagram account, later adding, “So, I thought he was having a heart attack.”