The stars of Fixer Upper have been to court a couple of times, but most recently, they were sued by their literary agent.
The hosts of Fixer Upper, Chip and Joanna Gaines have faced a variety of controversies, complaints, and scandals over the years.
The couple has even been involved in a couple of lawsuits. This includes a 2016 lawsuit with their neighbour, a 2017 lawsuit with former business partners, and a more recent lawsuit over a book deal.
The Fixer Upper controversies
By now, most people are aware that reality television shows might not be entirely forthcoming about what goes on behind the scenes.
Unfortunately, reality television stars and hosts like Chip and Joanna Gaines often fail to live up to the expectations that fans have of them in real life. This can lead to several kinds of controversies for their brands.
These controversies often range from minor complaints on social media about the fact that the couple does not do all of the renovations on the show themselves, to serious lawsuits, and just about everything in between.
Why is Fixer Upper in court?
Chip and Joanna Gaines, are the hosts of the ever-popular Fixer Upper home renovation shows, as well as the owners of and collaborators in many other successful business ventures.
The couple is certainly not the only reality television stars who have faced their fair share of controversy and backlash over the years.
However, it can still be scary when these controversies escalate into serious lawsuits. While most controversies and conspiracy theories disappear on their own after a while, lawsuits can end up having lengthy legal proceedings. They can even end up costing the parties hefty sums of money.
Unfortunately, Chip and Joanna Gaines have been involved in various lawsuits through the years and have even had to go to court to defend their side of the story.
The first time that the Fixer Upper couple was taken to court after their show had started airing was in 2016. In this specific case, Chip and Joanna were reportedly sued by their neighbour on their Magnolia Market at the Silos property for $1 million dollars.
Just a year later, one of the Fixer Upper hosts was dragged to court once again, when Chip was sued by his former business partners on fraud charges.
More recently, in 2022, Chip and Joanna were named in a lawsuit where their literary agent accused the couple of breaching their contract. This case is still ongoing and has not been resolved in court yet.
What happened in the 2016 lawsuit?
Before the 2016 lawsuit was filed against the Gaineses by their neighbour, they had been leasing the alleyway next to their Magnolia Market at the Silos property to give their customers space to park.
However, the negotiations between the Gaineses and this neighbour about this leasing agreement later went south and, which is what caused the lawsuit.
Fortunately for both parties, the Gaineses offered to buy the property in 2017 and the lawsuit was quickly dismissed, before things could get too ugly.
What happened between Chip and his former business partners?
In 2017, John L. Lewis and Richard L. Clark, two of Chip’s former business partners, filed a lawsuit against the Fixer Upper star for allegedly defrauding them.
Lewis and Clark stated in the lawsuit that Chip convinced them to sell their shares in their Magnolia Realty company to him for the low amount of $2500 each in 2013.
The problem was that they alleged that Chip conspired to get rid of his business partners without telling them that Fixer Upper had been picked up by HGTV.
The show’s exposure increased the value of the business significantly, but Lewis and Clark claim they were never informed that this could be on the horizon.
Why is Chip and Joanna Gaines’s former literary agent suing them?
Chip and Joanna Gaines’s most recent lawsuit was filed by the couple’s former literary agent.
Apparently, Chip and Joanna, who were represented by Vigliano Associates, signed a deal with HarperCollins in 2017 for five books to be written by the couple. This deal was reportedly worth up to $12.5 million.
However, while the first two books included in this deal went swimmingly for all parties involved, the literary agent from Vigliano Associates claims that Chip and Joanna Gaines concocted schemes to try and get out of this agreement later on.
Some of the documents included in this lawsuit even claim that Joanna Gaines made a deal with a different agent for her book, The Stories We Tell: Every Piece of Your Story Matters, and is now looking for $1 million in damages.
