In Chip Gaines, HGTV discovered an entertaining goofball who grew into one half of a house reno energy couple — one whose affect grew to become so nice that they turned two outdated cottonseed silos into a well-liked vacationer entice. Nevertheless, some HGTV viewers aren’t fairly as enamored with Chip anymore, and their detrimental emotions concerning the “Fixer Higher” star could not solely be aroused by how obnoxious he can generally be on his present but additionally by his shady conduct.

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In Chip’s protection, there in all probability can be no “Fixer Higher” with out his shenanigans, a few of that are foolish and innocent. Nevertheless, earlier than the present was greenlit, he landed in sizzling water for making an enormous monetary choice with out consulting his spouse, Joanna Gaines, first. The couple was filming take a look at footage for a possible actuality present once they have been mainly warned that they have been too boring. That modified when Chip bought a ramshackle houseboat (with out inspecting it in individual first) and broke the information to a blindfolded Joanna because the cameras rolled. “He takes the blindfold off, and there is the semi-truck and this boat with all these holes in it. … I am simply mad,” Joanna recalled on “At present.”

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Joanna added that she and Chip have been financially struggling on the time, which can assist clarify why Chip wound up in authorized hassle over the just about $20,000 he agreed to pay for the leaky vessel. In accordance with Radar, the boat’s vendor needed to file two complaints as a result of Chip would not pay what he owed. The vendor received his case, leaving Chip deeper within the gap; along with the boat’s price, he was ordered to fork over $20,000 in authorized charges. “I did get performed soiled,” Chip insisted on “At present.” Sadly, this wasn’t the one time he angered Joanna or acquired dragged to courtroom.

Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines’ love story would not have the romantic begin many followers may think. As an alternative, it begins with anger and atrocious etiquette. In her memoir “The Magnolia Story,” Joanna remembers how Chip stored her ready for an hour and a half once they arrange their first date. She was so livid when he lastly confirmed up that one among her roommates needed to let him inside her condominium. “He did not apologize for being late, both,” she writes. Joanna nearly did not give Chip a second date, though her greatest subject with him wasn’t his tardiness however his talkativeness. Nevertheless, they determined to satisfy once more — and Joanna was rewarded with radio silence for months.

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Joanna was unable to make their second date for a fairly severe motive: She needed to endure a microdiscectomy, which includes surgically eradicating a part of a disc within the backbone. Joanna did not hear from Chip whereas she was within the hospital. In a dialog she recorded in her memoir, she advised him, “Everybody thought it was impolite that you just did not name after that.” His response? “Huh. Nicely, I apologize, Jo. I did not even take into consideration that.”

What was much more thoughtless is that Chip did not ask Joanna out once more for months. She later discovered that he and a buddy had made a wager to mainly see who might ghost their dates the longest. “I actually wished that fifty {dollars} from John! That is the one motive I did not name,” he advised Joanna. Many ladies would take into account a possible accomplice prioritizing a measly sum of money over her emotions a significant purple flag, however for some motive, Joanna did not block Chip’s quantity and provides him a style of his personal drugs.

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Chip Gaines has come below fireplace from followers for being a foul canine dad earlier than. In 2023, he shared a photograph of his youngest son, Crew Gaines, sitting astride one of many household’s beloved pets whereas the considerably irritated-looking pooch tried to calm down on the porch. “Please do not let kiddos journey canine! … Ask the ER docs what number of occasions they see photographs like these find yourself with bites to the face,” wrote one commenter. Others expressed concern that the boy’s weight would possibly damage the canine, and it wasn’t the primary time Chip did not take a pet’s well-being into consideration — his negligence had beforehand resulted in his canine often getting caged on the pound.

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Again when Chip and Joanna Gaines lived close to Baylor College in Waco, Texas, they usually allowed their canine to remain exterior, unleashed and unfenced. In “The Magnolia Story,” Chip grouses about one neighbor who stored reporting the free-ranging pooches to animal management. “There have been occasions when the officer would name the canine proper off of our porch … They’d hop proper in his van, and off they’d go, again for one more keep within the pound,” he remembers.

Chip and Joanna Gaines have been fined every time this occurred. Whereas Joanna wished to pay up, Chip insisted on ignoring the citations. “I completely refused to pay out of some misguided type of precept,” he defined. However when the couple racked up over $2,000 in fines, the legislation got here in search of them. Joanna, who had not too long ago given delivery to the couple’s first baby, was the one dealing with arrest, however Chip gallantly acquired the tickets swapped to his identify — and acquired a style of what his canine skilled every time they have been taken away in a stranger’s automotive.

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In accordance with two of Chip Gaines’ former enterprise companions, he screwed them out of an enormous payday. Earlier than Chip and Joanna Gaines discovered HGTV fame, Chip had an organization referred to as Magnolia Actual Property, which he co-owned with Rick L. Clark and John L. Lewis. In 2017, Clark and Lewis filed a $1 million lawsuit accusing Chip of preserving them in the dead of night about his take care of HGTV to movie a actuality collection, which presumably would have elevated their firm’s money move as soon as it hit the airwaves.

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Clark and Lewis claimed that Chip dedicated fraud by shopping for them out earlier than their enterprise acquired all that candy free HGTV promotion — or earlier than they may demand that he fork over extra money to be given full management of the enterprise. They wrote of their authorized filings, “Chip Gaines conspired to eradicate his enterprise companions — however their longstanding friendship — to be able to be certain that he alone would revenue from Magnolia Realty’s affiliation with ‘Fixer Higher,'” (through the Waco Tribune-Herald).

Along with procuring authorized counsel, Chip responded to the lawsuit on X. “Fyi: Ive had the identical cell # 15 yrs.. similar e mail for 20 yrs. Nobody referred to as or emailed? 4 years later ‘associates’ attain out through lawsuit.. Humm,” he wrote. Chip celebrated a authorized victory when Clark and Lewis’ lawsuit was dismissed in 2020. He had filed a counterclaim in opposition to his ex-partners one yr prior, accusing them of defamation. As reported by KWTX, all events concerned settled out of courtroom in 2023, and as a part of their settlement, Clark and Lewis wouldn’t undergo with interesting their lawsuit.

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In a November 2016 report on Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines’ place of worship, Antioch Group Church, BuzzFeed laid out a few of its pastor’s preachings. Amongst them was the view that homosexuality is one thing that may be modified and that same-sex {couples} should not be allowed to marry. Weeks later, after Donald Trump was elected president, Chip penned a since-deleted weblog publish for the Magnolia web site that might have been construed as not simply his ideas about America’s political local weather but additionally his response to criticism of his church.

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Chip by no means expressed help for same-sex marriage however did write, “We care about you for the easy truth that you’re a individual, our neighbor on planet earth. It isn’t about what shade your pores and skin is, how a lot cash you have got within the financial institution, your political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender, nationality or religion.” He additionally probably had his church and the backlash to its teachings in thoughts when he wrote, “Our household needs to battle for a world that is aware of how one can lovingly disagree. … In case your place solely extends like to the individuals who agree with you, we need to respectfully problem that place.” In fact, not all disagreements are created equal, as a few of them contain whether or not or not sure residents get to have sure rights.

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As of this writing, Chip additionally hasn’t addressed experiences that he donated $1,000 to his sister when she campaigned for her native faculty board with a little bit important race principle fearmongering. Nevertheless, in 2021, he did inform The Hollywood Reporter that he and Joanna wished to foster range within the office. “We have practically 700 workers, and one among our greatest passions is making this group characterize all folks,” he stated.

In 2024, Chip Gaines actually stepped in it after he acquired dragged into the X discourse surrounding the way forward for Baylor College basketball coach Scott Drew. It began when the Barstool Kentucky X account joked that Chip and Joanna Gaines have been probably the important thing to preserving Drew in Texas. On the time, there have been experiences that the College of Kentucky was making a play for the coach. In response to an X consumer who prompt that Drew would possibly change colleges for an even bigger payday, Chip wrote, “Cash is boring.. all people’s acquired cash. We have God on our aspect.” He added an eye-roll emoji to his comment, making it only a tad extra hoity-toity.

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Chip’s poverty erasure was not well-received, with one critic writing, “Cannot imagine your insensitive remark contemplating how many individuals are struggling and struggling proper now.” Chip, who’s a multimillionaire, made issues worse by moving into an argument over Biblical interpretation and making an attempt to persuade himself that he’s the camel that can match via the attention of that needle. When an X consumer talked about what the Bible says about how onerous it’s for the wealthy to get into heaven, he argued, “Tougher, not ‘not possible.'”

This wasn’t an issue Chip might merely slap some shiplap on; as an alternative, he tried to proper his rapidly sinking social media ship by providing to ship cash to a number of the individuals who criticized him. Nevertheless, his monetary flub by no means ought to have occurred, seeing as how he and Joanna Gaines have been broke as a joke again within the day. “Once we first acquired married the one cash we had was what was in Chip’s pocket,” Joanna advised Folks. “He all the time had a wad of money, however we have been broke.”

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