'Fixer Upper' Star Joanna Gaines Talks Lawsuit, Warns Fans: 'Don't Believe Everything You Read'
Things are not going well for Chip and Joanna Gaines of the HGTV series "Fixer Upper" after Chip has been slapped with a lawsuit by his former partners.
Lewis and Richard Clark filed a $1-million lawsuit against Chip, 42, for reportedly buying them out of the Magnolia Real Estate Company without informing them of his deal with "Fixer Upper."
Based on the lawsuit that was obtained by PEOPLE, Chip bought their shares for $2,500 each on May 6, 2013. Two days later, Chip publicly announced that "Fixer Upper" has been picked up by HGTV.
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"I knew and understood at that point that he had gotten all he could out of our relationship and was done with it," Lewis said of Gaines. "[It] was already at that point of realization that our relationship was essentially over that I discovered that he had defrauded me and Rick."
Because of this mess, Chip's wife Joanna made an appeal to their fans on her blog to be discerning about the news that have been circulating. "So many things are happening right now and it feels like we are moving at the speed of light. At times, it's even hard to keep our own parents in the loop. It's true," she wrote.
Aside from the lawsuit, Joanna said she and her husband have been dragged down by several rumors — from her getting into the business of facial creams and expecting baby #5.
"At this point in our career we can honestly say, we've heard it all — from reports of us moving our family to Vegas to us having more or less children than we actually have. So remember, you can't believe everything you read," she said.
As for Chip, he responded cryptically to the lawsuit on Twitter (@chippergaines) by sharing a Bible verse from John 1:5: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
