TheFixer Upperalums recently sat down with Oprah to talk about their lives as business partners and parents in aSuper Soulspecial that premieres on Discovery+ on March 13. In the exclusive clip, above, the media mogul asks the couple how fame has impacted them and their decision to take a year off after their hit showended in April 2018.
“I have discovered that fame is just, your life is the same, you’re the same, and everybody has an idea of what that is, it’s just more people know your name. And I think if you don’t know who you are when the fame thing hits then you lose yourself,” Oprah said, sitting down with the couple in the same familiar setting as herbombshell interviewwith Meghan Markle andPrince Harrythat made global headlines this week.
Chip and Joanna Gaines.OWN
Chip, 46, answers quickly, praising his wife of nearly 18 years: “I want to speak on Jo’s behalf, because she would never say things like this, but she is so incredibly wise, so incredibly grounded — all the things that you just described, is who Joanna is.”
He then adds that in the early years of the show, he found himself struggling to handle his newfound fame in the same effortless way as his wife.
“Really what happened — and was the truth for Jo and I — was it was no big deal for her, but for me to become famous, I lost a part of myself that was really… it was sad,” he admits. “I would say it took me a year or two while I was still filming to try to grapple with what exactly it was that I was losing.”
He adds that the year that they spent out of the public eye was a time when he and Joanna were able to “hunker down and really kind of try to unpack what it was about fame that seemed so incompatible with my personality.”
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In a December 2018 cover story forCowboys & Indiansmagazine,Chip spoke similarly about his feelings toward fame, admitting that “toward the end of theFixer Upperjourney, I felt caged, trapped.”
“The day we wrapped our final episode of Fixer Upper, we really believedit was a chapter closed,” the couple said of the series' comeback at the time. “We knew we needed a break anda moment to catch our breath. But we also knew we weren’t done dreaming about ways to make old things new again.”
After the show ended, the couple took on various renovation projects — fromredesigning their Magnolia headquarterstooverhauling a historic hotel in downtown Waco— but, they said, they missed the structure of the show that launched them to fame.
Joanna and Chip Gaines.Joanna Gaines/Instagram
“These past few years, we’ve continued tackling renovations and projects, doing the work we’re passionate about, but I don’t think either of us anticipated how the show would become such a permanent fixture in our hearts,” they said. “We’ve missed sharing the stories of these families and their homes with you, and we’re excited to do that again very soon!”
In addition toWelcome Home,the Magnolia app will offermuch of the content promised on the network, includingMagnolia Table withJoanna Gaines,the completeFixer Upperlibrary and full seasons of several of its new shows, includingGrowing Floret, The Lost Kitchen, Homegrown, Family DinnerandRestoration Road with Clint Harp.
Super Soul: Chip andJoanna Gaines: Magnoliaairs Saturday, March 13 on Discovery+ and will be available as a podcast on March 17.
source: people.com
