Tragic Details About Chip Gaines' Life

Chip Gaines is most well-known as one-half of the "Fixer Upper" franchise, the other half being his wife, Joanna Gaines. Behind the scenes, the couple fell into the business venture shortly after they married in 2003 when Joanna joined Chip's home renovation business. From there, they started Magnolia Market, and it wasn't long until they caught HGTV's eye. In 2013, "Fixer Upper" was born.

After five seasons, the show saw its close. Chip and Joanna's lives in the home renovation world continued and seem to be all-encompassing; from magazines to furniture lines to a bed and breakfast, Chip and Joanna have done it all, and have had five children together in the process. To give insight into their lives outside and past their four walls, Chip has released two biographies: "Capital Gaines: Smart Things I Learned Doing Stupid Stuff," published in 2017, and "No Pain, No Gaines: The Good Stuff Doesn't Come Easy," published in 2021. Both books detail the tragedies that have affected and altered his life, both in the realm of fame and beyond. From the heartbreaking event that altered the trajectory of his life to cracking under the pressures of his newfound fame, Chip's life has included many tragic details.

Long before he was a "Fixer Upper," Chip Gaines was just a guy who wanted to play ball. In his sophomore year at Baylor University, he was booted from the baseball team. It was all he had ever wanted to do with his life, and suddenly he had to re-route. "And in the following months, I fell into something I can only describe as a deep depression," he described in "Capital Gaines: Smart Things I Learned Doing Stupid Stuff" (via RadarOnline.com). 

After the time he spent in feeling depressed, he had an epiphany. "But hiding away in my dorm room, fooling myself into believing I wasn't made to do anything other than play a game, wasn't going to work forever," he candidly remarked. "Apparently, there's a cap to the amount of self-pity time a person gets, because one morning I woke up and realized it was time to snap out of it." This led him to a gig working alongside the campus landscaper. From there, his entrepreneurial spirit flourished. Gaines eventually pivoted his own lawn care work into flipping homes. He was able to turn his career backup into a media empire.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines attended Baylor University together, but their relationship didn't form until after their diplomas hit their hands. Call it the Invisible String Theory, but their relationship wasn't without its tangles. In 2001 when they were about six months into their relationship, Chip's career was starting to take off.

In his 2017 memoir, he recounted that he had been using the same team for many of his projects, but they only spoke Spanish. In an attempt to become a more effective communicator, Chip decided to take a 3-month Spanish Immersion course in Mexico, leaving all of the business responsibilities to Joanna. She was willing to help out at the time until things went south.

Two weeks went by when Chip received a heated phone call. "Your business is a joke!" Joanna yelled at him, "All these people are coming to my dad's shop demanding to be paid, and there's no money! Lucky for you, your dad is bailing your sorry butt out" (via Today). She added, "You have three days to get back to Texas or this relationship is over." Chip headed home and was able to smooth things over with Joanna and his future father-in-law, but not without learning the value of his actions: "No language acquisition or dream trip was worth that. It became my mission to prove to Jo, my parents, her parents and myself that I could do this — that I was the real deal and I wouldn't stop until I made this entrepreneurial dream of mine a reality."

Though their business had already proven to be successful, Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines, like many other couples, faced some financial hardship early on in their relationship. During an interview with People in December 2020, Joanna revealed how they scraped by as newlyweds after they got married in 2003. "He always had a wad of cash, but we were broke. If I needed to go grocery shopping it's whatever was in his pocket. That's how we paid the bills."

Later in the interview, Chip revealed that Joanna's parents weren't always as supportive of his business. "Her dad spent the first two years of our marriage asking me if I was going to get a job," he quipped. It would take some time, but Joanna's dad would come to eat his words. Across all of their business ventures with Magnolia Empires, and despite stepping away from "Fixer Upper" in 2018, their net worth is estimated to be a staggering $50 million, per Celebrity Net Worth.

As much as the Gaines' newfound fame helped their financial situation, their celebrity status would alter how they went about their daily lives. The couple welcomed their first son, Drake, in 2005; Ella in 2006; Duke in 2008; Emmie in 2010; and Crew in 2018. One afternoon before Emmie was born, Chip Gaines decided to spend an afternoon at their regular flea market with Duke. The toddler ran a bit ahead of his dad, but Chip lost sight of him when a gaggle of fans clamored to meet Chip.

"It was a bit of a sad moment where I realized that fame had sort of overwhelmed and taken over my entire life," he expressed in March 2021 to "Today." He went on to explain how this kind of public encounter wasn't new to him, but losing sight of his toddler snapped him back into reality. "And so I was basically on my way to kind of gobble him up and get him back into a safe place, and at about that same second, I was surrounded by this group of people," he said, adding that the fans saw him as a public figure more than a father who had lost his son.

The incident subsequently caused Chip to take a step back and look at how the business was affecting his family. "And it sort of forced me to reconcile with whether or not all of this was worth it in some of those kind of big life decisions you have to make in these cases."

Ultimately, Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines decided to take a step out of the spotlight to focus on their family. We can't say that we blame them. Running a business is hard; running multiple businesses, filming a TV show, and raising five children sounds impossible.

It was around "Fixer Upper's" third or fourth season when Chip and Joanna began feeling the effects of their demanding schedules. During an episode of the "From the Woodshed" podcast in March 2023, Chip revealed that they had fallen behind on filming the season that was ending while simultaneously trying to get a jump on the next season's endeavors. Despite the workload, they persevered. However, they announced ahead of the show's fifth season that it would be their final. On their website, the couple wrote, "This is just us recognizing that we need to catch our breath for a moment. Our plan is to take this time to shore up and strengthen the spots that are weak, rest the places that are tired and give lots of love and attention to both our family and our businesses."

After the show saw its close in 2018, Chip sat down with Cowboys & Indians Magazine and explained how they were led to that decision. " ... I felt like toward the end of the 'Fixer Upper' journey, I felt caged, trapped. Jo and I couldn't figure it out." He also described not enjoying being on camera as much anymore. However, Chip and Joanna found their way back onto TV screens and eventually made their grand return to the HGTV stage in collaboration with their business venture, Magnolia Networks, for "Fixer Upper: The Lakehouse," which aired in June 2024.