Joanna Gaines Opens Up About Stepping Away From ‘Fixer Upper’ With Chip Gaines

The HGTV series Fixer Upper made Joanna and Chip Gaines household names, but the couple ended the series at the peak of their small-screen fame.

Joanna and Chip made their TV debuts with the premiere of Fixer Upper in 2013. The home renovation series followed the pair as they transformed run-down houses in Waco, Texas, into their clients’ dream homes. The show also followed the duo as they continued to grow their Magnolia brand.

In 2017, Joanna and Chip broke the news that Fixer Upper would be coming to an end after its fifth season. “This has been an amazing adventure! We have poured our blood, sweat, and tears into this show. We would be foolish to think we can go and go and fire on all cylinders and never stop to pause,” they wrote in a blog post at the time. “Our family is healthy, and our marriage has honestly never been stronger. … 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.”

Joanna opened up about the decision to conclude the series on the Monday, September 7, episode of Hoda Kotb‘s “Joy 101” podcast. “It’s like when you start realizing you’re living on a thing that’s now — the intentionality is gone, and you’re just showing up — that doesn’t feel fulfilling. It actually feels as though we’re a part of this machine that is like, ‘What’s the life here?'” she explained. “And I would say that was our first pause of like, ‘We’re doing all this and seeing great reward. This is wonderful. But also, never at the expense of like our livelihood, our happiness, our souls.'”

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Joanna noted that “about three years ago,” she and Chip stopped seeing the “vision” in their work. “I remember, that was a, ‘OK, we’re gonna take the summer off,’ which meant disappointing our team, disappointing a lot of things, because to just up and leave means … it cost us something. It cost people something,” she said. “But that three months was time for us to go, ‘We need a break. We need clarity. Why are we building this? What are we doing this for?'”

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She continued, “I think now it’s just the older I get, the more conscious I am of that feeling and how, whether that’s time in the garden, that’s a walk, that’s journaling, it’s time with my kids, whatever it is, filling my tank.”

When asked by Kotb how she knew it was “time to stop down,” Joanna replied, “I think dread. When you start dreading your days, like, I don’t want to do that. You start wishing for a stomach bug or, ‘OK, maybe back surgery this year would be great.’ How do I force myself?”

Joanna also said she knows to step away when something makes her soul feel “weary,” adding, “From a physical standpoint, I can push past the weariness, the physical. But then, you get to that layer of the soul weariness, and that’s dangerous, I think. That’s really dangerous. And so, there’s a place for me of just maybe a holy fear of, ‘I don’t want to get to that place of weariness in my soul.’ I don’t like that. So, that’s where I’m very conscious of if I feel it, I tap back into it.”

After Fixer Upper ended on HGTV, Joanna and Chip launched their own channel, Magnolia Network, digitally in 2021 and on cable the following year. Over the years, the Fixer Upper franchise has continued with a handful of spinoffs, such as Fixer Upper: Welcome Home, Fixer Upper: The Castle, Fixer Upper: The Hotel, Fixer Upper: The Lakehouse, and Fixer Upper: Colorado Mountain House.