Chip & Joanna - Our Untold Love Story

Sources dish on fixer upper alums Chip and Joanna Gaines’ amazing journey and plans for the future

Today they’re the picture of domestic bliss, but at the start of their marriage, life wasn’t easy for Chip and Joanna Gaines. “We were broke!” Joanna once recalled, adding that Chip held on to what little money they had. “He had this wad of cash. So if I needed to go grocery shopping or if I needed to just go find a new shirt, it [was] whatever was in his pocket.” Added Chip: “Her dad spent the first two years of our marriage asking me if I was gonna get a job! I was like, ‘I’ve got a job! I flip houses! That’s a job!’ ”

He wasn’t kidding. Since then, Joanna, 41, and Chip, 44, have managed to take their once-struggling business and turn it into a billion-dollar home-improvement empire. “Never in their wildest dreams did they think their life would turn out like this,” a source tells OK! “They’ve worked hard for everything they have — none of this has been handed to them. They’ve earned this success.” The same goes for their 16-year marriage. “They’ve built their marriage into what it is today with faith, patience and discipline,” explains the source. “It’s all paid off because these days, they’re happier than they’ve ever been.”

A BUMPY START