Fixer Upper’s Joanna Gaines is charging $150,000 an hour to participate in a deposition that’s part of an ongoing lawsuit. Gaines isn’t a plaintiff or defendant in the suit. According to The Blast , the legal battle is between two companies, Standard Furniture Manufacturing Company and LF Products PTE LTD, who disagreed over the quality of material used in a furniture line that would have been sold by Joanna and Chip Gaines’ furniture company, Magnolia Home.
Joanna was the one who realized that there was a discrepancy in the raw material that was used. As a result, she was subpoenaed by attorneys representing LF Products for a deposition but she filed legal papers to officially decline because she found it “burdensome.” In the filing, Gaines states that she is willing to fill out a written deposition.
LF products asked Joanna, via her lawyer, to search for documents related to the case. But the attorney said that Gaines wouldn’t do it unless she was paid for her time. When asked, she said that her rate was $150,000 per hour.
There’s been speculation that Joanna is demanding such a high rate because she’s pregnant with her fifth child. But according to her lawyer, Gaines thinks that this rate is fair because she has received that in the past. LF Products has petitioned the court to force Gaines to appear at the deposition, but there hasn’t been a ruling as yet.
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Even though Joanna isn’t a party to the lawsuit, this isn’t the first time that either she or her husband Chip has been linked to a controversy. In November 2016, Buzzfeed reported that Chip and Joanna Gaines’ pastor, Jimmy Seibert, regularly preaches against same-sex unions and homosexuality. They also noted that devout Christians , Chip and Joanna, have never had a same-sex couple on their show.
In response to the Buzzfeed article, HGTV stated that they do not discriminate against members of the LGBT community and that they are proud to include people from all walks of life in their shows. Chip responded via a blog post in which he insisted that they do not judge people based on their sexual orientation or on other criteria like religion or race.
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