Chip Gaines Almost Married Another Woman Before Meeting Joanna

Sometimes, we're certain we've found "the one." The relationship has been steady for a while, maybe a couple of years even, and a future together feels tangible. It's a beautiful place to be. However, we may find ourselves waking up to the reality that the person we thought we would spend the rest of our lives with isn't even going to be in our lives much longer. Be it circumstances or behaviors that cause division and eventual separation, our hopes for the relationship don't always go as planned. 

This happened to HGTV star Chip Gaines. However, in his case, letting go of the person he once thought was "the one" prepared him for the person who actually was, his current wife Joanna Gaines.

Chip was in a two-year relationship before he and his ex-girlfriend broke up. Prior to that, he was determined to make her his wife, although that goal wasn't always clear to him.

When his ex-girlfriend was working in London, Chip Gaines came to visit her. She asked him what direction they were heading in the relationship, and his response was that he hadn't thought much about it. On the plane ride back, however, his answer changed. "I walked off that plane hell-bent on making that young woman my wife," he told Magnolia Journal, according to Yahoo! Entertainment.

He pursued her, hard. He came up with the idea of making her something. After working on a retaining wall for work, he decided to make a miniature version for his then-girlfriend. He dropped it off in the night and left a note inside. Her response wasn't what he had hoped for. Her roommates discovered the structure, but not the note. They thought it resembled a tombstone.

After this attempted gift, Chip received a letter from his then-girlfriend's father expressing his concerns. "I really respected this man," he told The Magnolia Journal, according to Country Living. "And for the first time throughout this whole ordeal, I realized that even though my intentions were good, I had pushed this too far." The couple soon broke up.

Fast forward to the future, and Chip immediately knew he wanted to marry his current wife Joanna before he had even met her. He first saw a photo of her at her father's car shop. "Her dad made the mistake of putting a pic of the family behind the counter at his [automotive] shop," he told PopSugar. "I knew I'd marry her one day just by the picture on the wall." He started taking his truck there in hopes of meeting Joanna, and one day, he finally did.

About a year after the two started dating, Chip proposed and Joanna said yes. In 2003, they married, flipped their home before moving into it, and opened Magnolia Market. Over the years, they grew in their relationship and in their business ventures, including their Magnolia Market Network. After more than two decades together, Chip and Joanna have five children and a life beyond most people's wildest dreams.

As for Chip, he wouldn't have wanted to have it any other way. "It's hard for me to articulate how grateful I am that we don't always get what we want," he told The Magnolia Journal, according to Country Living. "Sometimes it takes a strongly worded dad letter to convince me that it's time to leave a dream behind."