Chip and Joanna Gaines, stars of the HGTV reality show “Fixer Upper”, are reportedly being sued by their former literary agent.
Vigliano Associates alleges that the couple did not hold up their end of a book deal. According to TMZ, the Gaines’ were represented by Vigliano when they received a $12.5 million deal in 2017 to write five books for HarperCollins.
Vigliano claims it was contracted to receive a “7.5% cut of any payments” to the Gaines.
The company said that everything was running smoothly for the first two books, however, Vigliano stated that the couple “concocted a scheme” to get out of the payments for the contracted final three books by attempting to change the deal.
According to documents, Chip and Joanna Gaines attempted to dissolve one book and, for the other two, the company claims the Gaines’ wanted to alter the scheduled author from Joanna to Chip for one of the remaining books, TMZ reported.
Vigliano stated that since the initial deal was only for books that were to be written by Joanna Gaines, the company would reduce the deal from five books to four.
Joanna Gaines recently announced the release of her memoir titled, “The Stories We Tell.”
Speaking of her new book, Gaines posted on her Instagram account saying, “Earlier this year I started jotting down memories and stories from my past, journaling about things I was still, years later, trying to work through.”
She continued to write, “Half of my life is behind me and I’ve been longing for clarity about what I should carry forward and how I could hold this next chapter well.”
Vigliano claims that the revenue gained from Joanna’s newly released memoir, “The Stories We Tell: Every Piece of Your Story Matters,” should be given to the company, according to TMZ. For her memoir, Joanna has signed a contract using a different agent.
