Joanna Gaines Jokes She Made Her Kids Homebodies, Like Her

Joanna Gaines has joked that she may have passed her love of staying in on to her children. According to Hello! Magazine, she said she "unintentionally turned the kids (sorry, Chip) into bona fide homebodies just like me."

The remark lands neatly alongside the home-as-sanctuary philosophy that runs through her bestselling book Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave.

The comment first appeared in the summer edition of Gaines's Magnolia Journal magazine, where Hello! Magazine reports she wrote: "For our family, home is where we recharge, where we reconnect." The framing is affectionate rather than apologetic, with Chip cast as the good-humoured outlier.

Gaines also takes the blame for the household's leanings. Quoted by People, she admits: "I'm likely to blame for our staycation state of mind."

The theme has resurfaced in her more recent public remarks. In a September 2026 appearance on Joy 101, The List reports, Gaines said her second-oldest, Ella, going off to college exacerbated her "mom guilt", and that these changes reinforced her homebody tendencies.

The homebody talk arrives at an eventful moment for the couple's property portfolio. On October 22, Chip and Joanna Gaines announced they had bought a 15,000-square-foot mansion in Waco, Texas, and InStyle reports they shared a first look at a new miniseries, Fixer Upper: Chip Bought a Mansion.

The title itself carries a joke, since Joanna is the one who describes herself as the stay-at-home half of the partnership. Whether the project will also draw on her design thinking is not something the sources address, so it is best left there.

For readers who know Gaines mainly from television, the comments show how consistently her public persona matches her published work. The idea of a house as a place to retreat to, rather than merely to display, is the through-line of both her magazine and her design writing.

Homebody is a room-by-room interior design guide, helping readers identify their personal style, solve common decorating problems and create homes that feel their own. It was an instant #1 New York Times bestseller on its November release from Harper Design.

That consistency is worth noting without overstating it: this is a lighthearted magazine aside, not a new announcement about the book. Still, it shows how naturally the author's family life and her design philosophy overlap.

Want the full verdict? Read our review of Homebody.

Readers drawn to the wider Gaines household may also want to look at Magnolia Table, Volume 2: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering.