Fixer Upper Host “Chip & Joanna Gaines” Biggest Controversies and Scandals Yet. 2022

Chip and Joanna Gaines are tv hosts, renovation specialists, and the founders of the Magnolia Empire. They found fame with the advent of Fixer Upper.

This was a DIY reality show based on their work in the Waco area.

Chip and his wife do their best to renovate some of the most hopeless and dilapidated properties they can find.

In doing so, they transform houses once considered hopeless into beautiful homes.

With fame, unfortunately, comes a lot of scrutiny. Read about the most significant controversies and scandals the Fixer Upper Hosts have faced.

Some homeowners were not satisfied with the new homes on Fixer Upper

Chip and Joanna Gaines live for the moments at the show’s end when they get to show people their new homes.

They are met with excited and grateful faces most of the time.

However, this is not always the case. One new homeowner, for instance, took issue with the fact that Mrs. Gaines had falsely advertised the surrounding neighborhood of his new home.

According to Joanna, the renovated property was located in one of the best neighborhoods in Waco. The couple featured in the ‘Three Little Pigs’ episode quickly refuted this claim.

They revealed that the neighborhood was loud, chaotic, and borderline dangerous.

Furthermore, they have located a stone’s throw away from noisy dive bars and shops, which always cause a lot of commotion.

If that wasn’t enough, the two even faced a constant stream of harassment from the locals. In short, it was like the Wild West.

Because of this, the couple felt deceived by Chip, Joanna, and the show in extension. Things took a turn for the worse when a motorist leaving the bar crashed his vehicle into the couple’s front window.

At the time, the man in question was reportedly drunk. The whole experience left the couple feeling unsafe and traumatized. What’s worse is that there were substantial implications that Chip and Joanna had personally chosen the property in question. It cast a negative light on the show and its producers.

The couple’s church was firmly against gay marriage

Chip and Joanna Gaines are prominent members of their church. The couple regularly talks about their faith and how religion plays an essential role in their lives.

They both attend the Antioch Community Church, which, unsurprisingly, is in their hometown.

Pastor Seibert, who is affiliated with the church, came under fire for his views against gay people. In his own words, being gay was a sin and one he encouraged people to rectify through conversion therapy.

This is an archaic form of therapy that has been proven to have long-term implications, such as mental health issues.

At the top of the list is depression, which, if not put in check, can have severely adverse effects. Despite this, Seibert encouraged gay people to seek this form of treatment to deal with their ‘affliction.’

He even revealed that he had personally talked to several people who had gone through the therapy and were now in heterosexual partnerships.

Naturally, the church came under scrutiny for its archaic and outdated views.

Because of their affiliation to the religious organization, Chip and Joanna were dragged right into the mud.

They came under fire for their alleged bias against the LGBTQ community.

Some eagle-eyed observers brought up the fact that Fixer Upper did not cater to same-sex couples.

The two eventually released a statement, clarifying that they had nothing against the LGBTQ Community.

Issues with Airbnb Rentals

Over the years, Joanna and her husband have managed to transform some of the most hopeless properties into works of art.

Coincidentally, some of these renovated properties also happen to be in the best neighborhoods in the country. This was a potential goldmine, and as such, some of the new homeowners wanted to make some extra cash on the side.

They listed their properties on platforms like Airbnb, highlighting that their houses appeared on HGTV’s Fixer Upper.

Because of the show’s popularity, these owners were able to charge a premium for their homes.

These properties attracted a lot of holiday seekers who loved the show.

The only people who were not pleased about this were the showrunners, Chip and Joanna Gaines. They set out to create homes for people to live in, not rent out.

The latter went against the core message of the show. However, there was nothing they could do legally to prevent people from renting their houses.

As such, they decided to alter the contracts homeowners signed in the subsequent seasons of the show. This would discourage people from renting their houses once they have been renovated.

Waco’s popularity is a nuisance for some people.

It is fair to say that Chip and Joanna Gaines put Waco on the map. A study showed that the Waco area would welcome around 25,000 tourists every month before the series gained traction.

After the show gained a nationwide audience, Waco started getting over 100,000 visitors per month.

This vastly improved the town’s economy, leading to an increase in employment opportunities for the locals.

However, not all the locals were pleased with the increased popularity of their hometown.

An influx of tourism meant that they could no longer enjoy the quiet they had come to expect from their town.

The show has been accused of being fake.

Fixer Upper has several elements that bring its authenticity into question.

Like most reality series, the show takes a few creative liberties to spice up the drama.

For one, they depict people looking for the perfect property around the Waco area.

In the extended sequence at the start of each episode, Chip and Joanna take their clients around on a tour of different properties they can select.

However, a leaked contract suggests that one requirement to appear on the show is that you need to own property in the Waco area.

Scandals are surrounding the show, ‘Home Work.’

With the advent of the Magnolia Network came the introduction of several new shows. One such reality show was titled ‘Home Work.’

The show focused on the renovation exploits of the dynamic couple, Andy and Candis Meredith, who operates in Utah.

Over the past few months, several former clients have come forward with some damning observations.

Because of these complaints and allegations, Home Work was pulled off the Magnolia Network for weeks. Joanna and Chip wanted to investigate these serious allegations.

Aubry Bennion’s Complaints

The first client to take issue with their work was a woman named Aubry Bennion.

In January 2022, she took to Instagram to detail a frustrating experience working with Andy and Candis.

Aubry had enlisted the help of the couple to fix her kitchen back in 2019.

At first, the Merediths told Audry that it would cost about $25,000 to get the kitchen renovated.

Moreover, they promised that it would take three weeks to finish the project.

However, Bennion revealed that it had taken the couple five months to finish the problems. She even claimed that they had opted to take an impromptu trip to France during the whole process.

Additionally, Aubry added that the budget had also ballooned to almost $40,000.

Remarkably, most of the costs she incurred later were because of the damage done by the renovation. Candis and Andy had built a deck next to the kitchen despite her protests.

Unfortunately, they chose to construct it over a sprinkler system, which led to flooding. All in all, it took an extra $18,000 for her to fix the damage caused.

The subsequent complaints Aubry made to the Magnolia Network were also not taken seriously.

Teisha Satterfield Hawley also comes forward.

Teisha was the next person to shed a negative light on Home Work.

After meeting the Merediths, she and her husband were confident that the DIY couple would make their dreams a reality. They saw no qualms in giving Candis and Andy $45,000 to fix their house.

Furthermore, the Merediths promised they’d only need about a month to complete the task.

However, ten weeks later, the Merediths had only managed to lay damaged flooring.

All the while, Teisha, and her family had no choice but to sleep in the basement. Things went from bad to worse once Candis demanded an extra $40,000 to finish the work.

Naturally, this angered Teisha and her husband, who chose to remove the HGTV couple from the project.

In another damning Instagram post, Mrs. Hawley chastised the Merediths, alleging that they put people’s homes and livelihoods at risk. Her criticism extended to Chip and Joanna Gaines, who she felt was as much to blame for the fiasco.

Vienna and Rob Goates’s experience

The Goates was another couple who had a lot to say about Home Work and the Magnolia network in extension.

Rob and Vienna Goates reportedly coughed up a staggering $50,000 for a home renovation project that Candis and Andy Meredith would undertake.

Remarkably, this was only half of the proposed budget.

Despite the availability of the down payment, the project was delayed for several months. Unsurprisingly, it made Vienna and Rob quite nervous.

Things got dire once the latter lost his job. However, Candis assured the couple that she’d see that the renovation was completed.

Fast forward eight months, though, and the project had not begun.

Eventually, the Goates family asked for their money back, canceling the whole project in its entirety.

The Goates claimed that Candis and her husband misled them and made false promises.

Things got so heated that Vienna and Rob decided to enlist the help of a lawyer to get their money back.

At the point of writing, Vienna revealed that Candis and her husband still owed them $36,000.

The Goates decided to go public because they felt that it was the only way to get all their money back.