‘Fixer Upper’ Star Chip Gaines Reveals His Most Shocking Parenting Fails

Fixer Upper star Chip Gaines revealed in a deeply personal story for People Magazine that being a father-of-five sometimes comes with some major parenting fails.

Gaines, who parents children Duke, Drake, Emmie, Ella, and Crew with wife Joanna, realizes that although he may make some major gaffes time and again, the one thing he hopes his children will realize is that his love for them supersedes any major parenting fails.

“I made every mistake in the book with Drake and Ella both,” he said to People Magazine. “There are lots of stories of me leaving kids places I shouldn’t have left them. I’ve forgotten birthdays. Afterward, you’re like, ‘I’m the worst person.’ ”

“But I’m a firm believer that it’s the mistakes that make us who we are. We learn the most from them, and I think that goes for parenting as well,” he remarked.

Gaines, who freely admitted that he flew by the seat of his pants most times while juggling parenting and creating and running the Magnolia business and its offshoots, realized that even with his mistakes, he wouldn’t change a thing about his journey as a father.

Fox News reported that Gaines realized that his life path was set the minute he met Joanna, although he found it a struggle to leave his bachelor days behind when they first met and married.

He admitted he wasn’t ready to marry and have a family, much less helm one of the most successful and highly-visible design businesses in the United States and subsequently star in one of the most popular shows ever produced for HGTV.

Gaines didn’t want anyone or anything tying him down until he met Joanna, who was working at her father’s automotive shop in Waco, Texas, when they first found one another.

The couple would later marry in 2003 and although he loved his wife very much, Gaines still wasn’t ready to go all-in with marriage, stating he knew he had to make changes to his thought process in order to have a successful marriage to Joanna. He now credits her for holding their family and business together.

Chip and Joanna Gaines are readying for the launch of their own television network. In a joint venture with HGTV’s parent company, Discovery Inc., the couple will bring a whole new network to television, not to mention lots of other platforms across a variety of digital spaces. The new venture is expected to debut in summer of 2020.