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Joanna Gaines Admits It Will Be Harder for Her To Watch Daughter Ella Move Out Than It Was With Son Drake: ‘I'm Losing a Friend'
Renovations expert Joanna Gaines has lifted the lid on one very big change that will soon be taking place inside the home she shares with husband Chip and their children—when their 18-year-old daughter, Ella, flies the family nest in order to attend college.
Joanna, 47, discussed her second child's impending departure from the family home in Waco, TX, in a wide-ranging new interview in the People special 'Chip & Joanna Gaines: Their Next Chapter,' admitting that she will likely find it more emotional to watch Ella leave the nest than she did when son Drake, 20, headed off to college.
'Ella, our second kiddo, she's graduating this year. So we're going through that again with another kid leaving the nest and trying to stay emotionally stable,' the mother of five explained, prompting Chip, 50, to ask: 'Do you think this is going to be harder [than it was with Drake]?'
'Yes. I think there's an emotional difference,' she conceded.
Because she and Ella tend to spend more time together during the day, she believes she's going to feel a much bigger hole in her life than she did when her son moved out, Joanna explained.
'With Ella, we love to go to antiques shops, plant shops, and go get coffee—that's our rhythm. I kind of feel like I'm losing a friend in my everyday life,' she said.
As for Ella, Joanna admitted that her daughter can't wait to head off to college, particularly because the new setting will give her a chance to establish her own identity, away from her parents' fame.
'She's excited about going somewhere and just being known for her,' the Magnolia Network star revealed. 'She's like, 'I don't want anyone knowing that you're … I just want to go and be myself.''
Establishing an identity outside of her parents' fame—and their popular Magnolia lifestyle brand—is no easy feat for any of the kids, particularly given that the family's hometown of Waco is overrun with the Gaineses' many businesses.
The couple even have their own page on the official Waco website, which calls attention to the many companies that they run out of the town, including Magnolia Home, Magnolia Realty, Magnolia Market, Magnolia Seed & Supply, Silos Baking Co., Magnolia Press, Magnolia Seed + Supply, The Shops at the Silos, and multiple rental properties.
Chip and Joanna are credited with turning Waco into a tourist hot spot. Many of their fans regularly travel to the area to visit one of their many stores or renovation projects—and perhaps even catch a glimpse of the celebrity couple.
Speaking to People, the couple opened up about how they have balanced their business empire with prioritizing their private lives, noting that they've been making a concerted effort to focus on spending time with family, particularly in recent years.
In August 2024, Joanna hinted that she was planning to take a step back from the day-to-day running of Magnolia.
She had become overwhelmed with the 'chaos' in her life, she wrote in an essay in the couple's Magnolia Journal magazine.
'I'm a fixer, a refiner—and in some ways I've made a career out of sharpening the instinct that draws my eye toward the off-balance and out of sync,' the HGTV star wrote in her 'A Note From Jo' essay.
'The part that can be harder is the pausing. Looking curiously at the chaos of my own busy life to try to create some order or fine-tune a few too-familiar ways of living that may no longer serve me.'
She added: 'In the end, here's what I'm hoping for: the beauty of what we'll see with this little bit of clarity. There may be some discomfort and awkwardness at first. But slowly, truth fills the space we're making. Maybe something does need to change. Or maybe you realize that you're already living the life you dreamed of. You only needed clearer eyes to see it.'
Though the Gaineses continue to churn out project after project—including Joanna's recently released series, 'Mini Reni,' and their upcoming show, 'Back to the Frontier'—they are also finding time to have some fun with their five kids, taking a recent trip to St. Lucia, where they soaked up plenty of scenery.
'Truth is, we're all homebodies,' Joanna confessed. 'But as our kids get older, I've learned what a gift it is to get away and have that intentional time as a family. Being present is what we're after—so we limit phones, pick a few games or hikes that everyone is excited about, eat together for every meal, and toss the schedule out the window.'
She also opened up about a new hobby that she and Chip have started together, revealing that they have taken up weekly dance lessons to inject some excitement into their marriage.
'I hired this couple; they came to our office and taught us how to dance,' she shared.
'Just she and I with this couple. You talk about awkward,' Chip joked.
Though they aren't the most talented of dancers, Chip revealed that, eventually, they began looking forward to the lessons—as the sessions helped them to form a new kind of intimacy.
'[When we started lessons], we didn't know how to hold our hands. It's hard to make eye contact with even your best friend and wife of 22 years,' he said. 'It feels really strange, awkward. But then, after two or three weeks, we started looking forward to those lessons.'
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