Chip Gaines is speaking candidly about how he and his wife Joanna struggled to keep up with the demands of Fixer Upper years before they ended the show in 2018.
Chip, 48, opened up to the stars of Maine Cabin Masters on the Magnolia Network stars' podcast, From the Woodshed, on Tuesday. He revealed that when the time came to shoot the third or fourth season of his beloved HGTV series, he and Joanna were so "burned out" that they felt overwhelmed going into it.
"When we got into that particular season, and I think it was the third or fourth, we were behind on the season we were wrapping," Chip says. "We were trying to get ahead on the season we were about to do. We were screwed. We were doing projects backward."
The couple eventually announced in September 2017 that they were concluding the show after its fifth season the following April, sharing that they needed time to focus on their family. "[The children are] so young, and we want to give them the chance to have a normal childhood," said Joanna, 39, at the time. "Family is the most important thing in the world."
The couple share sons Drake, 17, Duke, 14, and Crew, 4, and daughters Ella, 16, and Emmie, 12.
Chip previously shed light on how he felt "caged" and "trapped" toward the end of the series, confessing that the last two seasons no longer felt like they were fun but felt like "more of a job," he told Cowboys & Indians magazine in 2018.
After taking some time to regroup and assess their next move, the couple announced in November 2018 that they would be launching their own TV network. After some pandemic-related production delays, Magnolia Network officially replaced the DIY Network in January 2022.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(999x0:1001x2)/chip-joanna-gaines-2-bbd0048a07cb45c0912a23cdfc29018d.jpg "Chip Gaines Opens Up About Being 'Burned Out' and 'Exhausted' as Early as Season 3 of 'Fixer Upper' (1)")
Chip also shed some light on the beginning of his and Joanna's house flipping endeavors, and the paycheck that convinced him to make it a full-time gig.
"When I flipped that first house, and I basically made on that first flip about what I made in the previous year in the lawn maintenance business, it kind of dawned on me," Chip says. "Like, hold on a second, I did this one flip in my spare time like a side hustle and I made about what I made last on my entire income? And so I got the bug pretty quick and jumped in with both feet."
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(554x410:556x412)/chip-joanna-gaines-fixer-upper-castle-101322-2-e4d1ae43cb924d8abd2af6fd8a61ab0d.jpg "Chip Gaines Opens Up About Being 'Burned Out' and 'Exhausted' as Early as Season 3 of 'Fixer Upper' (2)")
The builder revealed they were "so content" making $50,000 a year flipping houses for the first 10 years of their relationship and business. Eventually, they worked their ways to the six-figure range — albeit the lowest end, Chip clarifies — and were "wildly content."
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"I'm so thankful this success didn't find Joanna and I early in my 20s or 30s. Just for me," he adds. "She's steady as the day is long. She's got a great head on her shoulders. This probably wouldn't have affected her in a negative way. But me, I would've been arrogant, most likely narcissistic, and probably a lunatic."
