Joanna Gaines just opened up about her experience with cyberbullying. The entrepreneur and reality TV star revealed that she and her family have been hurt and affected by bullies and social media trolls ever since she and her husband, Chip Gaines, first rose to fame.
Writing in the latest issue of her magazine Magnolia Journal, Gaines shared that she feels she has been criticized for her family, plans, beliefs and politics since she first became part of the public eye.
“Stories get written about us, about our family, our plans, our supposed beliefs and politics,” she wrote. “We’ve been through it enough now to know that it’s just part of the territory, and a lot of times it’s so unbelievable we can’t help but laugh.”
Though she makes an effort to prevent criticism and opinions from affecting her, Gaines revealed that, "Every now and then, a headline or story will strike a nerve regardless of how off the mark it may be. Those times are harder to reconcile because we're human, and the idea that 'it's just part of the territory' doesn't make untrue accusations any less painful," Gaines wrote.
Gaines also revealed that her husband often handles criticism better than she does.
Now the founder of a home-care empire, Gaines first became famous when she and her husband started their HGTV show “Fixer Upper” in 2013. She and her husband now run an entire homestyle network called Magnolia, focusing on content across homes, design, cooking and more.
