Ella Gaines: Everything We Know About Chip And Joanna's Oldest Daughter

Couple-and-coworkers Chip and Joanna Gaines have to balance work with life, and they have kept their five children (Drake, Ella, Duke, Emmie, and Crew) largely out of the limelight — but their oldest two are taking charge of their own lives.

Their oldest, Drake, started attending Baylor University in 2023, and their second oldest, Ella, turned 18 in October 2024. With their gaggle of kids making their way out of the house, Chip and Joanna are forced to let go of some of the rules and regulations they kept as parents, but only for their oldest two, as their youngest, Crew, was born in 2018. "I feel a little bit like a drill sergeant sometimes. Some elements of my personality, as a parent, I'm not real crazy about," Chip admitted in a 2018 interview with People.

Chip and Joanna have been slowly allowing their oldest daughter to have more freedom and control over her life and portrayal to the public. Here's everything we know about Ella Gaines.

Oh, to be 18 again; the excitement of graduating high school, the eagerness to get to college, Chip and Joanna Gaines picking out the perfect dorm for you to live in your freshman year. That's the reality for Ella Gaines.

Joanna shared in a 2024 interview on "The Today Show," how she feels about another bird leaving the nest. "My second one, Ella, she's graduating, this is her senior year. I can't even ... I just look at her and I wanna cry. Because I see her as this little girl, I'm like, 'How are you already 18 years old?'"

Joanna didn't let her emotions keep her from making Ella's transition into adulthood spectacular. The master interior decorator took to Instagram to share her excitement with a video of the strategic decorations. Giant balloons and wrapping paper with a palette of sage green, turquoise, and white, complete with Parisienne-themed decor, were in store for the 18-year-old. Joanna paired the video with the caption, "One more sleep til our Ella is 18! My how time flies."

Chip and Joanna Gaines gave a rare insight into their children's personal lives during a March 2019 interview with People, and it appears they'd all become interested in different aspects of their parents' work. Ella, in particular, follows after her mother.

"Then Ella is like me, I think she'll follow in my footsteps and have her hand in a lot of things. Right now she wants to cook, be a lead designer, and have a donut truck," she said of her then 13-year-old daughter. The year prior, Joanna had shared a post on Instagram showing what Ella was doing. "Her new summer business is selling baked goods at the office when she goes to work with me," she wrote in the caption, continuing, "Tonight we stayed up late and she made Aunt Opal's banana pudding and the chocolate chip cookies from my cookbook. She's going to make a heck of a businesswoman #magnoliatablecookbook #ellassweetdeliveries." The photo hid Ella's face but showed her hard at work in a chef's apron packaging her jars of banana pudding, completed with multi-colored twine, labels, and a wooden spoon.

Her passion for baked goods hasn't wavered over the years. In November 2024, Joanna posted an Instagram video of Ella slaving away over some donuts. Regardless of whether her devotion to the craft becomes a career, it sure is a 'sweet' way to spend quality time with Mom!

There were an estimated 8 million freshly 18-year-olds who would be eligible to vote in the 2024 Presidential Election for the first time, and Ella Gaines was included in that number.

Chip memorialized the significant occasion with an Instagram post with his daughter, flaunting their "I Voted" stickers. Though Chip artfully disguised Ella's face with the blonde pigtailed-girl emoji and didn't reveal who they cast their votes for, Chip kept his messaging simple in his caption while encouraging others to get out to the polls: "Proud papa. #FirstTimeVoter"

Fans went to the comment section to show their support and encouragement for others to exercise their right to vote. "My three oldest grandgirls are all first time voters. So proud of them." One user commented. "Can't believe you have a voting aged child? Time is a thief. I hope she enjoyed the freedom of being able to do so!!! How lucky we are," wrote another.

Chip and Joanna Gaines have a very specific rule regarding social media for their five kids: they're not allowed to have it.

"Our house rule is you get social media the summer before you go to college .... so 18," Joanna revealed in a May 2024 interview with "The Today Show." It had been a long wait for Ella Gaines, but upon her 18th birthday, she had been granted permission to head her Instagram account. Both Chip and Joanna follow her, but it is currently set to private.

Keeping up this rule was no easy feat for the Gaines as parents. "You can tell these kids want it before that," Chip added during the interview. "It's not like it's this agreed place to where we've all decided roughly 18 and they're like, 'Oh, thank goodness. I didn't want it to begin with.' They wanted it at 12, 13, 14." Their lavish lifestyle in Waco, Texas made up for some of the heartache, though, as Chip and Joanna went on to express how their children had grown accustomed to the rule and didn't do too much begging. Joanna also mentioned that one of her motivations behind the rule is knowing how damaging social media can be for young women, so she wanted to make sure her girls were equipped and mature enough for anything that came their way. Since Ella has reached that milestone, the sky, or the Instagram guidelines rather, is the limit!