Longtime Food Network heads and Barefoot Contessa fans know that Ina Garten and her husband Jeffrey are truly “endgame” when it comes to their relationship status. Just look at them! Adorable.
The couple have been together for a very long time. They got married back in 1968(!!!), and Jeffrey’s made frequent appearances on Barefoot Contessa — whether he’s helping fetch ingredients for Ina’s latest heavenly dish, or giving his own seal of approval for her fabulous cooking.
Ina-heads (Garteners?) have undoubtedly been over the moon when it comes to the couple’s on-screen chemistry — which is why it might be shocking to learn that they once almost got divorced. Yes, really!
Ina details that the near-divorce took place in the late 1970s, when she was running her Barefoot Contessa shop in Westhampton, New York. She recalls feeling that Jeffrey “expected a wife that would make dinner,” which left her frustrated with their relationship.
“There were certain roles that we played, and I found them really annoying,” she says. “I felt that if I just hit the pause button, I would get his attention.”
“When Jeffrey came on weekends, he was a distraction,” she recalls, regarding her work at the store while Jeffrey worked for the US Government in Washington, D.C. “I didn’t pay enough attention to him. I just wanted everyone to leave me alone so I could concentrate on the store.”
“Jeffrey was fully formed and living the life he wanted to live. I wasn’t, and I wouldn’t be able to figure out who I was or what I wanted unless I was on my own. I needed that freedom.”
“I thought about it a lot, and at my lowest point, I wondered if the only answer would be to get a divorce,” she writes. “I loved Jeffrey and didn’t want to shock — or hurt — him, so I’d start by suggesting we pause for a separation.”
Ina says the decision to separate was “the hardest thing I ever did. I told him that I needed to be on my own. I didn’t say whether it was for now…or forever.”
Ina also recalls moving back to their D.C. home and reuniting with Jeffrey after her Barefoot Contessa shop had closed for the winter. “‘What can I do to change your mind?’ he asked so hopefully, not understanding that I doubted we could make our relationship work, and that we might be heading for divorce.”
Ultimately, Ina told Jeffrey that if he saw a therapist, she’d consider reconciling with him. Sure enough, he did — and the rest was history.
“Jeffrey’s willingness to see the therapist was as significant as anything that might happen during their session,” she writes. “He was that determined to convince me he was serious about making our marriage work.”
And in the end, Ina believes that the separation was key to their relationship surviving and, in the process, becoming stronger.
“I think how crazy that was and how dangerous it was, but we wouldn’t have the relationship we have now if I hadn’t done it. It changed him, but it also changed me too.”
