People step back from high-powered careers in entertainment for all kinds of reasons. Stress and burnout, the intrusions of the public and the press, lack of good roles or projects, a desire to switch gears - it can be any of the above. For Joanna and Chip Gaines, walking away from their HGTV series Fixer Upper was crucial for them. It was time for the married couple to pivot from small screen success and back to real life. However, it sounds like they did reportedly face some blowback from some in their camp who saw the situation very differently, per The New York Post. The decision to put Fixer Upper to rest for good apparently affected many.
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Joanna Gaines Said That "Soul Weariness" Got the Best of Her and Dictated a Shift
To paraphrase a song title, the thrill was gone for the pair. They needed a change. Joanna Gaines explained further when she was on Joy 101 With Hoda Kotb. "When you start realizing you're living on a thing that's now... the intentionality is gone, and you're just showing up... that doesn't feel fulfilling. It actually feels as though we're part of this machine that is like, 'What's the life here?'"
Furthermore, Gaines added, "I would say that was our first pause of like, 'We're doing all this and seeing great reward ... this is wonderful,' but also never at the expense of ... our, like, livelihood, our happiness, our souls." Gaines went on, "Stopping in that moment was basically us saying ... 'What's worth it is, like are we healthy? Are we good? Is our family good?' That's the most important thing. So that was really a very pivotal moment for us."
The Gaineses Had Quite a Knack for Transforming Homes
Per the outlet, they took lackluster living spaces in Waco, Texas, and made them morph into desirable destinations. Thus their Fixer Upper TV showcase really took off after it began airing in 2013. Yet in 2017, they reportedly said they intended to wrap it forever after season five.
Joanna Gaines put the motivation for doing that this way. "We stopped seeing vision. We stopped remembering, 'Like why are we doing this?'"
She Admits There Were Consequences
Ending the show was not minus some fallout. Nevertheless, it was a move the Gaineses felt they absolutely had to make. Joanna Gaines said to Hoda Kotb, "Which meant disappointing our team, disappointing a lot of things ... So it cost us something. It cost people something. But that three months [we took off] was time for us to go, 'We need a break. We need clarity. Why are we building this? What are we doing this for?'"
To summarize, "From a physical standpoint, I can work till I can ... I can push past the weariness the physical, but then you get to that layer of like, the soul weariness, and that's dangerous."
