Joanna Gaines Admits When Chip First Said 'I Love You,' She Made a Classic Misstep and They Briefly Broke Up

The Magnolia Network couple opened up about their 20 years of marriage in a new special edition of PEOPLE

Joanna Gaines is able to look back and laugh at her early relationship jitters with husband Chip.

In a new special edition of PEOPLE, Chip & Joanna Gaines: 20 Years of Marriage and Magnolia, the Fixer Upper: Welcome Home stars opened up about the first time Chip said "I love you" and Joanna . . . didn't.

"A couple months into it, you were like, 'I love you.' Joanna recalls in the joint interview. "And I was like, 'Oh, thank you.' That made him a little upset."

Chip adds that his now-wife was "just so nervous and so weird" about the three little words. But Joanna begs to differ.

"I was not nervous. I was just like, 'I've never said I love you to anybody,'" she tells him. "I'm telling you I was so old-fashioned in that. Sometimes you just have this picture of how it's going to be — and this was a very different picture. So I was just cautious in a lot of ways."

Related:Joanna Gaines Reveals She Knew She'd Marry Chip on Their First Date: 'Right Off the Bat'

In fact, Joanna's careful discernment caused the pair to break up for a week. "We took a week off to just be like, 'Is this for us? Is this not?'" she reveals.

The Magnolia Network founders admit they couldn't even go that long without seeing each other again.