Joanna Gaines Tells How She Almost Ended up With Husband Chip’s Roommate

The Gaines family has been together for almost 20 years, and they have five children. Joanna, however, had her heart set on Chip‘s roommate before they ever met. On Tuesday’s Valentine’s Day episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the couple discussed the first time they met one another. Growing up, Joanna worked for her dad’s tire shop, and Chip’s roommate, nicknamed “Hot John,” was one of the customers. The co-workers tried to set her up with the attractive customer, but Joanna said, “I got the courage to get up out of my office. I walk towards the waiting room and John and I make eye contact. But I’m not really gifted in any conversation. So I look at him and I’m like, ‘Now what?’ And so instead of going to the waiting room, I walk straight outside, like I was going to take a smoke break or something.”

Joanna came face-to-face with Chip as she walked outside, who joked he was perfectly prepared for the meeting. “Unlike her, I’m incredible at eye contact. I always have a one-liner planned for any occasion where you might meet one of the most beautiful women on the planet,” Chip said about his wife. “You must have that back-pocket line ready to rock. So she walked right past Hot John, thankfully, right into the loving arms [of me].”

According to Chip, regarding his friend and former roommate, “John’s tall, dark and handsome. I was sort of shorter, redder and frumpier.” After the couple joked about having baby No. 6 one day, the crowd chanted, “Number six, number six, number six!” Recently, Joanna, 44, revealed that she and her husband love calling each other “babe.”  A video montage of several scenes from their Fixer Upper: Welcome Home and Fixer Upper: The Castle shows the pair trading pet names about 14 times in the nearly 30-second clip posted on Valentine’s Day. “Babe, this is embarrassing,” Joanna wrote in the caption, wishing her husband and fans a happy Valentine’s Day. 

A short video Joanna posted two weeks ago showed Chip, 48, spending time with his animal friends in the couple’s chicken coop is just one example of how the Gaineses, who married in 2003, frequently share sweet tributes to one another on social media. They have also been open about how hard it is to balance business, relationship, and family life with five kids: Crew, 4, Duke, 14, Drake, 18, and daughters Ella, 16, and Emmie, 13.

“Jo and I both made a commitment pretty early on that the two of us are the most important variable,” Chip told PEOPLE in 2017. “If we can figure out how to be right as a couple, then obviously we have a lot better opportunity to be right for our kids.”