How Chip and Joanna Gaines Met

Fixer Upper stars Chip and Joanna Gaines have a swoon-worthy love story that continues to this day. However, the couple had humble beginnings in Texas.

In an interview with PopSugar, Chip said he met Joanna at her father’s car repair shop, but he knew she was “the one” before ever actually meeting her.

“Her dad made the mistake of putting a pic of the family behind the counter at his [automotive] shop. I knew I’d marry her one day just by the picture on the wall,” he explained.

One day, Chip went back to the shop to have his brakes checked out. That day, Joanna was in her father’s office and they finally met in person.

“We met in the waiting area and hit it off immediately. He was genuinely engaging and he had such a sincere smile,” Joanna told PopSugar.

Chip fell head over heels for Joanna right away, but Joanna was a little more apprehensive. She finally applied the “one” label to him after realizing she could trust him.

“At first, I couldn’t believe how kind Chip was — he had kind eyes, and made me laugh a lot,” she said. “I knew he was the one because I knew I could trust him.”

The two married in May 2003 in Waco, Texas, after a year of dating. Their first home as newlyweds turned out to be their first fixer-upper renovation.

“We started renovations on it immediately after we came home from our honeymoon,” Joanna told PopSugar. “All I could remember is the smell. The house was bad. Chip did all the construction, and I remember many nights he was on his hands and knees staining floors or laying tile.”

Joanna’s parents, Jerry and Nan Stevens, also have a heartwarming love story. The couple met in 1969 while her father was stationed in Korea, Joanna wrote on Instagram.

“Interesting enough, the way my mother tells it, she spotted my dad sitting off by himself in a corner at that party and said to a friend of hers, ‘That’s the man I’m going to marry,’” Joanna wrote in her memoir, The Magnolia Story, reports Country Living. “Her friends thought she was crazy, but she says she just knew.”

Jerry later moved back to the U.S., but they continued to trade letters. He later sent Nan a ticket to the U.S. and the two married in Las Vegas in 1972, even though their parents did not approve. The two are still married, 46 years later.

Fifteen years after tying the knot, the Gaines now have their own Magnolia business empire, complete with a magazine, books, a store and restaurant. They also have five children: sons Drake, 13, Duke, 9, and three-month-old Crew, as well as daughters Emmie, 8, and Ella, 12.

They starred on their own five-season HGTV series Fixer Upper from 2013 to April 2018. The couple chose to end the Emmy-nominated series to focus on their business and becoming parents again.