Joanna Gaines reveals ‘it wasn’t love at first sight’ when she first went out with future husband Chip: ‘We probably wouldn’t go on a second date’
Turns out sparks weren’t flying when Joanna Gaines went on her first date with future husband Chip.
‘It wasn’t love at first sight for Chip and me,’ Joanna, 42, wrote in an essay for the Magnolia Journal, obtained by People.
Talkative, ambitious, and a risk-taker, Joanna confessed Chip wasn’t exactly her type.
‘It wasn’t love at first sight’: Turns out sparks weren’t flying when Joanna Gaines went on her first date with future husband Chip
‘For one thing, I was typically attracted to guys who were more on the quiet side,’ she wrote in an essay for the magazine, entitled Slow Yes.
‘Based on our first date, it was clear that Chip was anything but quiet,’ she recalls, describing him as ‘all over the place’ as he went on about all the risks he wanted to take and his dreams of starting companies and flipping houses.
‘I was wondering if he was just a bit crazy,’ Joanna remembered thinking at the end of the date.
Initially, Joanna didn’t think they would make a great match.
Taking a chance on love: Gaines recalled the beginning of their relationship in the latest issue of Magnolia Journal, which centers around the theme of risk
‘In my mind, I somewhat instinctively checked his penchant for risk and chatty nature as two reasons we probably wouldn’t go on a second date,’ she said.
Even though he was totally not her type, there was something about Chip that inspired Joanna to go after her own dreams.
‘All the ideas and dreams he held for himself were anything but ordinary, and he talked about the world around him through the lens of untapped potential,’ Joanna wrote. ‘When Chip did eventually stop talking, if only to take a breath, I found myself wanting to fill the silence with plans and dreams of my own.’
Inspired: Gaines recalled Chip ‘had drawn out a side of me that I didn’t yet know existed’
Fortunately, she decided to explore what was between them.
‘This near-stranger had drawn out a side of me that I didn’t yet know existed,’ Joanna wrote. ‘My gut told me there was something there worth waiting for. Our lives have beat to this same rhythm ever since.’
And the rest really was history.
The couple have been married for almost 16 years now, and share five children: Drake, 15, Ella, 14, Duke, 11, Emmie, 10, and Crew, one.
Chip and Joanna have turned their house flipping business into an empire, and went on to become stars with their HGTV series Fixer Upper, which earned 17 million viewers a week.
The couple are now in the process of launching their own TV channel, the Magnolia Network.
The network was initially supposed to debut October 4, but has been delayed due to the coronavirus crisis.
Strong foundation: The couple have turned their house flipping business into an empire, as the stars of HGTV’s Fixer Upper, and are in the process of launching their own network