It's Official! Chip and Joanna Gaines Will End 'Fixer Upper' After 5th Season

After five seasons and millions of fans, Chip and Joanna Gaines are officially saying goodbye to their hit HGTV show.

“It is with both sadness and expectation that we share the news that season 5 of Fixer Upper will be our last,” they wrote on their blog Tuesday. “While we are confident that this is the right choice for us, it has for sure not been an easy one to come to terms with. Our family has grown up alongside yours, and we have felt you rooting us on from the other side of the screen. How bittersweet to say goodbye to the very thing that introduced us all in the first place.”

The announcement comes as a shock to viewers who have followed the couple on their journey from a small-town construction and decorating duo in Waco, Texas, to international celebrities.

Since the pilot aired in May 2013, Fixer Upper has become one of the highest-rated shows in the network’s history. But being on TV is just one part of Chip and Jo’s home improvement empire.

The couple’s growing portfolio of successful businesses includes retail compound Magnolia Market at the Silos (which draws up to 40,000 visitors every week); paint, rug, wallpaper and furniture lines; a quarterly magazine; a real estate company; a luxury vacation rental; a soon-to-open restaurant and a New York Times bestselling book, with a second, Capital Gaines: Smart Things I Learned Doing Stupid Stuff, due out Oct. 17.

Despite all their success, the Gaineses have always stayed true to their humble beginnings.

“We’ve been all over the world now,” said Chip, 42. “But there’s something really romantic about not just saying, ‘Remember where you came from,’ but really living that out.”

And if their fame and fortune suddenly came to a halt, well, they’d be okay with that too. “We’ve got everything that our hearts desire,” Chip said. “I don’t see how we could be happier.”

And the couple never wanted their children Drake, 12, Ella, 10, Duke, 9, and Emmie Kay, 7, to grow up in the spotlight.

“They’re so young, and we want to give them the chance to have a normal childhood,” said Joanna, 39. “Family is the most important thing in the world.”

For more on Chip and Joanna, including an excerpt from Chip’s upcoming book Capital Gaines, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE on newsstands Friday.