HGTV's Chip and Joanna Gaines on Working to Maintain Their 14-Year Marriage (Steak Date Nights Help)
HGTV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines open up about their happy marriage, how they stay humble and life at home in Waco, Texas. Subscribe now for the exclusive interview plus 100 reasons to love America — only in PEOPLE!
Chip and Joanna Gaines have been happily married for more than a decade, but the Fixer Upper stars admit their relationship is far from perfect.
“Every now and then there are times when we notice we’re getting off track and have to regroup,” Chip says in the latest issue of PEOPLE. “But it’s like everything we care about, everything that’s important to us — we know it’s going to require work.”
FROM PEN: Chip and Joanna Gaines: ‘Nothing Has Come Easy — but We’re Living Our Dream’
They’ve got a standing date every Tuesday night, when they have a chance to really check in and spend some one-on-one time together. “I love a good steak every now and then, but we tend to frequent our local holes-in-the-wall for street tacos and queso,” says Joanna. “After dinner we get ice cream and drive around Waco to go down memory lane and visit our old stomping grounds.”
They also start each day by sharing a cup of coffee on the porch together before the kids wake up. “Marriage requires effort and time and talking and connecting,” says Joanna. “You have to maintain it.”
For more on Chip and Joanna Gaines, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday
As they continue to grow their business and home improvement empire gets while starring in a one of the highest-rated reality series in the network’s history, their marriage and children will always come fist.
“Jo and I both made a commitment pretty early on that the two of us are the most important variable,” says Chip. “If we can figure out how to be right as a couple, then obviously we a have a lot better opportunity to be right for our kids.”
