'Fixer Upper' stars Chip and Joanna Gaines talk faith, family and fame

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Chip and Joanna Gaines are some of the most-famous stars on HGTV, but they said they never planned for a life in the public eye, and they lean on their faith to guide them through it all.

In a video for People magazine, the pair discussed how their lives were turned upside-down when they got a call from HGTV inquiring if they were interested in their own show after Joanna’s blog gained some viral attention. “Fixer Upper” hit the air in 2014.

“Jo and I still joke that we were trying to make a name for ourselves here in Waco, Texas,” Chip told People. “That was our whole hope. That was our dream. And for this to have gotten as big as it has, has really been something else.”

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The pair said they rely on their faith to help them navigate their day-to-day lives.

“I had to learn that this whole God thing isn’t just this big religion. It’s really that He wants this relationship with us on a personal level,” Joanna said. “Even today with the opportunities that are coming our way… I need His guidance. Otherwise I’d say yes to everything.”

Chip said his faith impacts how he interacts with Joanna and their children.

“Without God, for me, I’m not the best version of myself,” he admitted.

The couple said they also try to keep their family grounded.

“This is something that Chip and I chose to do, but I think with our kids, they are still so young. We want to give them a chance to just be normal kids,” Joanna said. “We don’t have a TV. They don’t know that we really even have a show, kind of.”

They have their roles in the home-renovation process all figured out now, but when they first started working together it didn’t go as smoothly.

Joanna and Chip met while she was working at her father’s automotive shop and he came in to have his car serviced. She said he had “this stalker crush on me for like a year and a half.” They married in 2003, and she shifted careers to start working alongside her husband.

“I would say early on, when we started flipping homes together, we had our fair share of fights, and figuring out… where the boundary was,” she explained. “There were certain things I was really good at, [and] certain things that Chip was really good at.”

Years later, they are able to realize just how different their lives are now.

“This all kind of fell into our laps, to some extent out of nowhere,” Chip said. “For me, the first time I realized that… something had changed in our lives, we were in New York City and somebody recognized me.”

Their book, “The Magnolia Story,” hit bookstores earlier this month.