Joanna Gaines’s Candid Interview Speaks Volumes About Her Marriage to Chip

“I still feel like he’s my life coach”

Published Oct 23, 2025

•

2:18pm

Joanna gaines shares marriage insights couple smiling 2025

Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images

Joanna Gaines is a media mogul and indoor/outdoor design guru who is beloved by millions. We watch her on television, buy her products at Target and follow her recipes and homemaking tips. And in a recent podcast interview with her husband Chip, she’s going deep into how life with her partner is built on a foundation as strong as any of the homes the two have built. “I think for the girl who played it safe her whole life...I was attracted to this guy who did not play it safe, but had a really good heart,” she tells interviewer Guy Raz on a recent “How I Built This” podcast. “I feel like for me and my faith with God, I feel like I’d rather a man of faith where he trusted in the friendship of God, and because of that he could do anything.”

Gaines says that when the two were dating in the early 2000s, although she had a stable career in her father’s tire dealership, she fantasized about starting her own business. “When Chip saw this, he said ‘I don’t understand why, since you have all these dreams on paper, why wouldn’t you go for them?’ And I was like, ‘Why would I go for them, this is just my daydreaming.”

Even though the two were newly engaged at the time, Chip encouraged her to take a risk. “He was like ‘Just pick one of these and let’s do it,’” she recalls. “I mean now, we’re life partners, but still I feel like he’s my life coach.”

The two opened Magnolia Market in Waco, Texas not long after, “a little home store with décor and candles,” as Gaines describes it now; from that humble acorn, a massive success in home renovation, shopkeeping, home goods partnerships and television stardom has grown. But it wasn’t easy, especially at first, as the Gaineses describe it—especially since the 2008 housing crisis came just as the pair were leveling up from smaller projects (single home flips) to a larger, heavily financed undertaking (a 6-acre development of 38 patio homes). “We’re doing this development, with streets, curbs and gutters and the housing crisis hits,” Chip says.

Joanna Gaines shares marriage insights: Joanna holding book

Craig Barritt/Getty Images for HarperCollins

“That was a rough 3 to 4 years of just every day, we were like, ‘Is this where we do the bankruptcy thing?’” Joanna says. (Note—all this happened while the couple had four kids in a five-year period, three of them still in diapers.) “We were always begging people for one more minute, one more day, one more week.”

Turns out, this extended time of extreme stress led not to a break down, but instead a breakthrough in the couple’s relationship. “Jo and I just had this epiphany in our marriage, it was pretty early in our marriage in that sense, we kind of envision it’s a tug of war to where she and I were always tugging against one another when there’s a problem or an issue. We were every man for himself in those moments, but we said if we can ever get aligned...pinky promise, let’s be together,” he says.

“We noticed this sort of energy, it was like one plus one started equalling ten,” Chip continues. “It wasn’t always easy but we just sort of decided to stop bickering at each other and nipping at each other’s heels and just support one another wholly.”

Today Joanna Gaines is looking forward to introducing a new food line at Target. “Last year, I kind of had this like weird epiphany that food is the easiest way to connect with people. Right now, culturally, connection is missing, and people miss each other,” she says. “We can focus here around food and getting people around the table.” With positive vibes and marriage mojo like the Gaineses, Joanna, we’ll come over to dinner any time.

Dana Dickey

Senior Editor

Writes about fashion, wellness, relationships and travel
Oversees all LA/California content and is the go-to source for where to eat, stay and unwind on the west coast
Studied journalism at the University of Florida

read full bio