Ina Garten’s Mother did not shy away from sharing her sharp opinions.
The 76-year-old Barefoot Contessa star opened up about how her mother Florence thought about marrying her now-Husband, Jeffrey, of 56 years It was a huge mistake – the pair had briefly separated years earlier.
“My mom walked into the room and said, ‘I think this is a terrible idea,'” Garten recalled. “Today” Tuesday
Sheff’s parents went to Syracuse University to see her, believing that Jeffrey had called them before proposing marriage.
“I just collected myself,” Garton said. told Hoda KotbShe then told her mother for the first time in her life, “I don’t care what you think.”
But his father, Charles, had a different view of the couple’s union. As Garten put it, her father called marrying Jeffrey, 77, “the smartest thing he ever did.”
Couple got married before graduation When Jeffrey was out of college, he was entering the Army.
“He took the whole pleasure out of me,” the cookbook author told Kotb. “He made me feel so smart, funny, thoughtful and amazing and so did he.”
Garton called the young Jeffrey “somewhat forward-thinking” because he “always encouraged me to live my life,” telling him early in their relationship that he should find his passions in life.
“If you don’t, you won’t be happy,” she remembered him telling her. “I was just shocked because I never thought I would do anything.”
When the two married in 1968, Garten resisted the idea of having children.
She thought, “I was like, ‘Why would I want to recreate the nightmare I just came from?'”
“I can’t even imagine,” she said of bringing children into the world. “I don’t know if I would have been a good parent, and I love my life the way it is right now, and I probably wouldn’t be able to do that if I had kids.”
Garton thought that her and Jeffrey’s marriage was traditional in the beginning.
“He was always the husband,” the Food Network star explained, “and I was always the wife.”
However, over time, Garten realized he needed an equal partnership.
two separated for a short timeWith Garten’s say People Ahead of the release of his memoir last month “Be ready when luck happens,” “There were certain roles that we played, and I found them really annoying. I thought if I hit the pause button, I would get his attention.”
He said that Jeffrey “expected a wife who would cook dinner.”
“Turns out, I love cooking dinner!” He teased Kotb. “I didn’t want anyone to do that expect I have to cook dinner.”
The two eventually work it out through therapy and talking about their future.
Garten admitted, “We reinvented ourselves on a different basis.” “And I remember thinking to myself, ‘Oh my God, I’m falling in love with someone who is my husband.’ It was an incredible experience.”
