Chip Gaines admits he needed 'to change' before marrying Joanna: 'I had to be a better person'

‘Fixer Upper’s’ Chip Gaines gets emotional over kids' notes

‘Fixer Upper’s’ Chip Gaines takes to social media and reveals how he got ‘teary eyed’ over heartfelt notes from his four kids

Chip and Joanna Gaines may seem like the perfect couple today, but when the pair first met, that wasn't the case.

Chip, 44, opened up in a new interview about struggling to leave his bachelor days behind when he first met his future wife.

"I really wasn’t that guy," Chip told People. "I dated girls whose goal in life was to get married and have kids. They had it all planned out, but I was too selfish. It was about me and what I wanted to do, and I didn’t have anything tying me down."

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But everything changed when he met Joanna while she was working at her father's automotive shop in Waco, Texas.

"It felt like there was this real transition. I matured and grew up," he told the magazine. "It just kind of clicked in my brain: 'This is going to work.'"

But even after the two married in 2003, Chip said he went through an adjustment period.

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"I had to make a lot of changes. I had to be a better person. But when I thought about the idea of being an 80-year-old man sitting on a rocking chair with my beautiful wife, and for she and I to have made it [that far], I got really excited," she said.

Now, the couple, who recently celebrated their 16-year wedding anniversary, share five kids: Drake, 14, Ella, 12, Duke, 10, Emmie, 9, and Crew, 11 months. They also are launching their own TV network and own a variety of businesses after the success of "Fixer Upper."

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But Chip says their success is due to Joanna. "I tell my kids this a lot. She’s the one that makes this whole thing go around."