Joanna Gaines Reveals the Shocking Place Her Parents Met
Here's a hint: it was the 1970s.
Joanna Gaines isn't ashamed of her parents' high-stakes love story; in fact, she gladly shared all the juicy details of how they met in a recent episode of her podcast.
On Monday's episode of The Stories We Tell With Joanna Gaines, the 44-year-old designer and Magnolia Network host invited her mom, Nan Stevens, on to talk about her journey to America in the 1970s, how she met her father, Jerry, and what it was like raising three daughters away from the familiarities of South Korea.
View the original article to see embedded media.
During the Nov. 28 episode, Gaines got her mom to open up about the first time she met her now-husband, and it's definitely not your average tale of romance.
While Jerry was serving at a U.S. military base in Nan's home country of South Korea during the early 1970s—way before Tinder and swiping for love—the two met the old-fashioned way, during a night out.
"You guys were at a party," Gaines said, leading her mom into discussing the moment she first laid eyes on Jerry. Shyly, Stevens replied with a quiet "yes," leaving her daughter to blurt their business out.
"Oh, who cares, everybody knows. She likes the Beatles—it was a pot party. It's fine," Gaines said with a reassuring chuckle.
"I'm going to marry that guy," Stevens recalled telling her friend at the time while pointing to Jerry, sporting what she referred to as "John Lennon glasses" and bell-bottom jeans.
The two then spent the next few months dating before Jerry revealed to Nan, "I think I'm in love with you," just two weeks before he had to head back home. But that wasn't the end for this head-over-heels couple.
After Jerry headed back to the states in Nov. 1971, the couple continued to exchange letters, and after six months of pen-paling their way through a long-distance relationship, Jerry asked Nan to marry him and sent her a plane ticket to the U.S.
Gaines then explained that her father picked up 19-year-old Nan in his Volkswagen Bug in San Francisco, California where they got married on the courthouse steps in very casual attire—cutoff jean shorts and a tank top—before driving all the way to Wichita, Kansas to start their new life together.
...the rest is history!
More News:
• Savannah Guthrie Absent From Rockefeller Christmas Tree Lighting Due to Unknown Illness
• 'Survivor 43's' Sami Layadi Explains Why He Never Went After Cody and Jesse
