Chip and Joanna Gaines' key to a happy marriage

Chip and Joanna Gaines sure make marriage look easy. Viewers tune in to HGTV in high numbers, not just for the couple’s amazing renovations, but to watch the couple's playful banter and chemistry on their hit show, Fixer Upper. But you will never guess what the couple credits for keeping the focus on each other.

The TV couple doesn't have TV in their own home.

Yes, you read that right, no TV in the house. In their new book The Magnolia Story, out Oct. 18, they wrote that it was another couple that gave them some interesting pre-marital advice:

One of the things Bryan and Carla suggested was that we try to stay focused on each other and spend quality time doing things we loved together, especially when we were at home. That seemed like a no-brainer to us, but they explained that being in the same house and actually interacting with each other were two different things. Sometimes it’s easy for couple to get lost in their own little worlds at home. … To counter that tendency, Bryan and Carla suggested we try to go the first few weeks of our marriage without a TV.”

So they heeded their friends' advice and a few weeks turned into six months and the couple realized they never missed having a TV. Joanna writes, “We’ve had more than 13 years now without a TV, and I don’t feel like we’ve missed a thing.” Though Chip does admit the couple has “still caught our share of TV at our friends' home or at our parents’."

Something tells us that just maybe the lovebirds have caught at least an episode or two of Fixer Upper.