In a new interview, the “Barefoot Contessa” star talked about how hard her life was.
Ina Garten told the truth about her hard life and “very lonely childhood.”
In an interview, the Barefoot Contessa star talked about how she and her brother Ken grew up in Connecticut and how scared they were of their surgeon father, who she said would hit her and pull her hair out if she let him down.
This 76-year-old Food Network star told PEOPLE, “I was scared.” “I was really scared of my dad.” I remember being sure that he would kill me if I did anything. I was scared to death of him. And my mother didn’t help at all.
Garten went on, “You’re always afraid when there’s a threat of violence, even when it’s not happening.” I pretty much spent my whole childhood with the door shut in my bedroom.
“I believe it was only for safety.” I did it to keep myself safe.
Garten said that her mother was bossy and thought that she might have had Asperger’s because “she really didn’t know how to have a relationship.” Because the two didn’t have a connection, the Daytime Emmy-winning celebrity chef worked on making sure she had good relationships with other people.
She said of her husband, Jeffrey, “Everything changed when I met him.” She met him when she was sixteen years old.
Garten thought, “I think I got through my childhood just by being determined.” “I wasn’t going to live my life that way.” I also believe that many times when people decide to live their lives differently, they end up going back to what they know. I made up my mind not to do that. Then I met Jeffrey, who showed me a whole new way to live.
They were together for four years before getting married in 1968. “When I got married, I told my mom, ‘I know you don’t think this is a good idea,'” Garten said. “That was the first time in my life that I just told her that.” I’m sorry to say this for the first time, but I don’t care. I’m going to do this.”
In her book, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, which came out on October 1, Garten also talked about how her late parents, Charles and Florence Rosenberg, abused her physically and emotionally.