Chip Gaines set 1 rule for daughter Ella on prom night. Then she broke it

Chip and Joanna Gaines had just one rule for their daughter Ella on prom night: be home by midnight.

“She blew past that,” Chip, 50, tells TODAY.com, his playful tone making it clear he wasn’t upset.

“But what do you do? What do you do with this 18-year-old human being that is now legally an adult? She could serve in the army if she had to, and here I am explaining that she has to be back at 12 o’clock.”

When Ella’s parents announced her curfew, Chip says she protested with an exaggerated, drawn-out “whaat?”

“When I was a kid, midnight was really late,” Chip says, laughing at Ella’s reaction. “I thought that would have given her plenty of time to do everything she’d want to do at prom, but apparently, it wasn’t enough.” 

As for what time Ella finally walked through the door of her family’s farmhouse in Waco, Texas, Chip isn’t entirely sure — only that “it was definitely in the wee hours of the next morning.”

Chip, an early riser, admits he was asleep by 9 p.m. that night, leaving Joanna, 47, to stay up and wait for Ella.

“Jo is extremely thoughtful in that way and I guess I’m a little bit too lazy,” Chip says.

Asked to describe what Ella wore to the milestone event, Chip jokes that he’s the “wrong guy” for fashion questions — a claim his answer quickly confirms.

“There was a dress for sure,” he says. “And she had a pair of shoes on. In regard to the color or pattern … I’m going to have to text Jo.” 

Joanna handled all the floral arrangements for prom which two of their younger children, Duke, 16, and Emmie, 15, also attended. 

“That was so sweet,” Chip says, his pride in his wife’s talent evident throughout his conversation with TODAY. 

The Magnolia co-founders, who rose to fame with their HGTV series “Fixer Upper,” which premiered in 2013, share five children: Drake, 20, Ella, Duke, Emmie, and Crew, 6.

Drake, the eldest son of Chip and Joanna, is pursuing a degree in business entrepreneurship at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, Texas. Ella, who just completed her senior year of high school, is exploring colleges farther from home and narrowing down her choices.

“We can’t wait for her to decide. Ella has thought about Korea, she’s thought about sunny Southern California,” Chip says. “She’s not going to be in the Central Texas area when she goes on to her next chapter. She seems excited to be able to spread her wings and do something very unique and outside the bubble.”

Chip describes Ella as “engaged and thoughtful” and says she is interested in studying business and digital design.

“With Drake, we needed to send him to college to teach him basic survival skills, like how to do laundry,” Chip teases. “Ella is on the exact opposite end of the spectrum. It feels like we’re sending this young lady off to become the next president of the United States. It’s very the sky’s the limit with Ella.”

Of his five children, Chip, known for his silly personality, says he sees himself most in Crew.

“He’s my boy. Literally, the one that I relate to the most is the 6-year-old,” Chip says. “The other kids take after their mom: They’re thoughtful, attentive, caring, pretty reserved, very cautious. When they go outside, I don’t have to worry if they’re going to come back with a broken nose. But with Crew, anything is possible.”

Like his dad, Crew loves the calm of the early morning and being in nature.

Recently, at sunrise, Chip found Crew enjoying a quiet picnic at the edge of their land, while the rest of the Gaines family was still fast asleep. 

“I was standing there watching, wondering, ‘What is this child up to?’ Chip recalls. “He says, ‘I found this little oak sprout.’”

When Chip questioned what Crew was doing with the seedling, he said he was telling it about the beautiful weather, how good God is, and what he had planned for the day.

“I thought to myself, ‘This child is just like me,’” Chip said. “The other four children would not have been talking to the oaks sprouts. I can barely get them to talk to me!”