Joanna Gaines Opens Up About Her Recent Rut

Joanna Gaines turned shiplap and barn doors into hot home trends, working with her husband Chip Gaines on "Fixer Upper." The Gaines' HGTV show "Fixer Upper" aired from 2013 to 2018, turning the couple's Magnolia brand into a magazine, a home furniture and decor line, an entertainment complex in Waco, Texas, and multiple best-selling books. In 2019, Chip and Joanna announced that their Magnolia brand would become even bigger, taking over Discovery's DIY network and turning it into the Magnolia Network. The new cable network was supposed to launch in 2020. Still, like everything else, the pandemic forced Chip and Joanna to create a Plan B.

Magnolia Network did a soft launch on Discovery Plus in 2021. Variety reported the new cable network finally launched in January, including a reboot of the Gaines' hit "Fixer Upper: Welcome Home." But days after the Gaines' new cable channel launched, Magnolia Network's "Home Work" stars were accused of defrauding clients. A former client accused "Home Work" stars Candis and Andy Meredith of putting them through the "remodel from hell." Even worse, client Vienna Goetes went on "TODAY," saying she paid $50,000 for the horrible remodeling experience. Chip and Joanna decided to work out the "Home Work" scandal in an unexpected way, working with the Merediths to fix customer problems and putting the show back on the air.

It's been a stressful year for Chip and Joanna. But the mom-of-five revealed that she took "extreme steps" to take care of herself in 2021 when she was going through a "rough patch."

Joanna Gaines shared how she took care of herself during a rough patch she was going through in 2021. According to People, the "Fixer Upper: Welcome Home" star revealed to Magnolia Journal that focusing on things she loved got her through a hard time. (We feel you.) COVID has made life harder for everyone, but launching a new TV network, raising five kids, and nurturing one's marriage during a pandemic would break most people. In a Magnolia Journal personal essay, Joanna wrote: "I found myself in this place late last year. Unbalanced by how much I was pouring out without being poured into in the ways I really needed." The mom-of-five wrote that she realized she needed to take care of herself so she could do her best for others. Joanna said she went back to the activities she is "drawn to, what I already know wakes me up and brings me life — nature, the garden, being in my kitchen," and she dove in.

Joanna joked that Chip and the kids thought that she had gone a "little extreme," but the Magnolia Network Creative Director said, "For the first time in a long time, I felt full, truly full. And at the end of those days, I was bursting with so much more to give. And really, that's all that I was after." It's impressive how Joanna and Chip Gaines have gone from being broke to owning a global brand over the last ten years.