REALITY TV NEWSJoanna Gaines Says Leaving 'Fixer Upper' Was Driven by Deep 'Soul Weariness' Despite Pressure to Continue
Joanna Gaines opened up about her 'soul weariness' that led her to quit 'Fixer Upper' at the peak of its success.
Sept. 14 2026, Published 6:30 a.m. ET
Joanna Gaines explained why she and her husband, Chip Gaines, decided to walk away from their show Fixer Upper at the height of its success.
“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,” she said on the "Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb” podcast.
Joanna Gaines shared why she left 'Fixer Upper' at the height of its success.
Joanna Gaines Claimed She Lost Sight of Her Life
Joanna Gaines claimed that she and her husband, Chip Gaines, lost sight of their lives while working on 'Fixer Upper.'
The home renovation mogul stated that at one point she felt like her work wasn't fulfilling her from within anymore.
“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,” she said.
“It actually feels as though we're part of this machine that is like, 'What's the life here?’” she added.
Joanna Gaines recalled wondering if their work had any real meaning before she quit 'Fixer Upper.'
“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,” she explained.
“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,” she recalled, before adding, “So that was really a very pivotal moment for us.”
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Joanna Said That She'd Find Excuses to Stop Working by the End of 'Fixer Upper'
Joanna Gaines used to look for excuses to skip work by the end of 'Fixer Upper.'
Fixer Upper first debuted in 2013 and ran for 5 seasons.
Joanna reminisced about deciding to end the show, noting that it did not come without its own set of consequences.
Acknowledging that quitting the show put pressure on their whole team, she said that it “meant disappointing our team, disappointing a lot of things … So it cost us something. It cost people something.”
“But that three months was time for us to go, ‘We need a break. We need clarity. Why are we building this? What are we doing this for?’” Joanna insisted.
Joanna Gaines explained that walking away from 'Fixer Upper' helped her and her husband Chip Gaines gain back their passion for their work.
“We stopped seeing vision. We stopped remembering, ‘Like, why are we doing this?’” she continued.
She also revealed that things became so bad for her by the end of it that she started “dreading” her days and always thinking, “I don't want to do that.”
“You start, like, wishing for a stomach bug or … 'Okay, maybe back surgery this year would be great.’ Like, how do I force myself?” she joked.
“So there's that part, but also just … where your soul just feels weary,” Joanna admitted.
