Lifestyle Home 'Trust, Above All Else': Chip Gaines Gets Candid About What Keeps His Marriage to Joanna Strong "She has my back. And I have hers — in all things," the Fixer Upper star says in an essay for Country Living By Megan Stein Published on August 29, 2017 04:00 PM Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: Joanna Gaines/Instagram There’s plenty that Chip Gaines loves about wife Joanna, but if he had to sum up why their marriage is a success in one word it would be this. “Trust,” he says in an essay for Country Living. “I could rattle off at least ninety things that she’s the best at and that I’ve learned from her, but honestly trust, above all else, is the key. She has my back. And I have hers — in all things.” In their Magnolia Journal magazine and in his upcoming book, Capital Gaines, the HGTV star revealed that their love story has certainly not been an easy one. At one point, Joanna even threatened to leave him if he didn’t return from a trip to Mexico in three days. But the Gaineses toughed it out through ups and downs to become the superstar couple they are today. Chip Gaines Says He and Jo Will ‘Never’ Break Up After Alleged Rumors of a Split “You need someone on your side,” the KILZ spokesman continues in his letter. “And if there’s one thing I know for certain, Jo is on my side.” Gaines says Joanna has “taught him a lot” when it comes to vision within their business ventures, but its also his close-knit relationship with the couple’s four children that serves as another life lesson launching pad. “Drakey (12) is forward-thinking like I’ve never seen. He’s an innovator,” Gaines says of their oldest. “Someday he’s going to change the world. I believe that.” WATCH THIS: HGTV’s Chip and Joanna Gaines on Their 14 Year Marriage Joanna Gaines Slams Rumors She’s Leaving Fixer Upper to Start Beauty Line: ‘This Is a Scam!’ Ten-year-old Ella’s “imaginative and creative” personality comes straight from the Fixer Upper matriarch herself, while 9-year-old Duke’s “kind and compassionate” tendencies might make him as popular as his dad. “He makes friends faster than anyone I’ve ever met,” Gaines says. “Emmie Kay is sweet, and she’s also bold and a bit of a firecracker,” he says of their seven-year-old. “She isn’t afraid to be different or to stick out. In fact, she welcomes it.” Like father, like daughter!