Joanna Gaines, 40, shocked fans of her hit HGTV show Fixer Upper when she announced that she was giving birth to her fifth child. Now, in the latest issue of her magazine Magnolia Journal , she admits that the pregnancy was a surprise to her, too, and a gift.
“Chip and I made a choice to take some time off this past year because it seemed best for us in that season — even though we knew it would stretch us to stay still,” she says in the magazine article, as reported by People Magazine .
“Only a few weeks later I found out I was pregnant.”
Joanna added that she had previously thought that she was done having children. Before her newborn came along, she’d had four with her husband and co-star, Chip Gaines: Drake, 13, Ella, 11, Duke, 9, Emmie, 8.
But the surprise pregnancy had an unexpected benefit, it forced her to take some time off from her busy entrepreneurial schedule and rely on the support of her “village” of friends and family.
“It’s sweet how, even in the most unpredictable ways, we’re given exactly what we need for that exact moment in time,” she continued. “It wasn’t something I could have anticipated. But being pregnant and ‘forced’ to slow down has been a gift.”
The Gaines family welcomed their newest member, Crew, on June 21. Since that time, both Chip and Joanna have been posting adorable photos of their new son on social media.
When a woman 35-years-old and up gets pregnant, it’s sometimes called a geriatric pregnancy. According to Healthline, that term is being phased out in favor of “advanced maternal age.” Gaines admits that she laughed when she first heard it but then found out that it applied to her.
She also revealed that the eight years between her last birth and this one have allowed her to grow as a person. That personal growth has made her more confident about her mothering skills. The theme of the new issue of Magnolia Journal is “Made Ready,” and Gaines says that’s how she feels about this pregnancy and her life in general.
She offered some comforting words of motivation to her readers.
“We all will have trials, we all will have miracles, and because of grace, I believe we have it in us to handle both — no matter what that looks like,” she wrote.
Even though they won’t be on our TV screens for the foreseeable future, there has been some speculation that they will return to that format at some point. As Vanity Fair reports, there were rumors that the real reason Chip and Joanna Gaines ended their HGTV show was because of a dispute over them promoting their brand of products on the show. Before Joanna gave birth, there were claims that they planned to take their lucrative brand of heartwarming home improvement to another network. We’ll have to wait and see whether that pans out. Until then, fans will have to make do with cute photos of the Gaines on their social media pages.
