Rachael Ray's Tragic Real-Life Story
Rachael Ray is not your average chef. In fact, she's not a chef at all. Ray's success is entirely self-made, so to speak. She never received any formal culinary training, had no idea how to bake, and told People that her husband cooks better than her. And yet, she's managed to turn into a star, with bestselling cookbooks and several Food Network shows. Her goofy, down-to-earth personality has enthralled millions, and yet, others who consider themselves experts in the food industry have ridiculed Ray with abandon.
Renowned chef Anthony Bourdain once called Ray a "freakazoid" and a "bobblehead, while Martha Stewart criticized Ray's approach to cooking, saying it's simply "not good enough for me" (via the The Guardian). As if having prominent names in the industry criticizing her was not enough, Ray also had to deal with a lot of online hate. For instance, there used to be websites and chat boards dedicated to slamming the Food Network star. One of them was called "Rachael Ray Sucks." Ray's response to all of this? Smile and wave, baby. She paid the online haters no mind and said of Stewart, "I'd rather eat Martha's [cooking] than mine, too."
Ray has undergone a stunning transformation since her rise to stardom in the early 2000s, but fame does not protect you from life's hardships, and Ray has found herself in darker valleys of the soul on more than one occasion.
Rachael Ray has had vocal cord issues since she was a kid
Anyone who's ever watched Rachael Ray do her thing on TV knows that she's got a distinct husky voice. As a child, Ray frequently got sick with croup, and this had a negative impact on her vocal cords. "I lose my voice a lot," she told People in 2006. "I went to a voice doctor [who] taught me exercises for my throat and to cut back a little on the caffeine."
In 2008, rumors were swirling that Ray had been diagnosed with throat cancer when it came to light that the talk show host was having throat surgery. The real reason behind her throat surgery was far less dramatic, however, and her reps quickly put the rumors to rest, assuring fans that Ray's procedure was not associated with a cancer diagnosis. "Rachael is the picture of health. She is having very minor surgery to remove a benign cyst on her vocal cord," Charlie Dougiello, Ray's spokesperson, told People. Dougiello assured the outlet that the procedure was simple and that Ray would have a short recovery time. "It's a common in-and-out procedure that she will have in early December and it will not adversely affect any of her daytime show or Food Network tapings," Dougiello said.
Ray wasn't out of action for long and only had to rest her voice for a week after surgery.
She had to endure nasty rumors about her and Oprah Winfrey's alleged feud
Rachael Ray and Oprah Winfrey are both legends in their own right, so it makes sense that the two are close friends. Ray has also hailed Winfrey as her mentor, and when she kicked off her eponymous talk show, Winfrey's production company, Harpo Studios, produced it. Not long after, however, nasty stories started making the rounds that Ray had spoken badly of her friend. The story involved a portrait of Winfrey in her production offices and certain comments attributed to the Food Network star.
Tabloids claimed that Ray had said derogatory things about Winfrey's portrait, and the press ran with the story. It became such a big media firestorm that Ray spoke up about it during an interview with People in 2007. "If people want to slam me, just slam me. I felt bad for Oprah because it attaches my name to [hers]. I wrote Oprah a note and said I would never presume to redress your paintings," Ray said.
Rachael Ray had to deal with rumors that her husband was cheating on her
It might be safe to say that Rachael Ray caused so few scandals that the press felt obligated to invent some. Shortly after Ray got married to John Cusimano in 2005, rumors started swirling that he was cheating on her. Anonymous sources claimed that Cusimano was hanging out at a swingers club shortly after he married Ray in 2005. In 2007, the rumors ramped up, with tabloids pronouncing the couple's marriage dead in the water. Ray's spokesperson clapped back with a statement to People, saying that the rumors had no merit. "Rachael and John have never been happier," they said (via the Daily Mail). Ray also addressed the rumors surrounding her relationship with her husband on one of her shows. "Everybody gossips ... but this stuff is hurting people's feelings who are in our families and friends of ours. They worry about us," she said.
In 2013, the infidelity rumors resurfaced, with sources telling the National Enquirer that Cusimano had been spotted at Checkmate, a swingers club in Manhattan. The source alleged that he'd paid six visits to the club and had different women on his arm each time, none of whom were his wife. While these rumors were upsetting, Ray put them to bed during an interview with People. "I've known where he is every night since we've been married," she said, making it clear that the rumors were nothing but balderdash.
She was attacked twice outside her apartment
Rachael Ray was working on the Upper East Side and living in Queens when, one night, she came home late and ran into an uninvited visitor outside her building. He pointed a gun at her, and Ray screamed at the top of her lungs. So loudly, in fact, that she said she scared herself at that moment. She somehow managed to get hold of her pepper spray and aimed it at her attacker, who made a duck for it.
While Ray was understandably traumatized by the incident, she told Vanity Fair that she managed to move on from the traumatic event fairly quickly. But then history repeated itself. This time, the boy hit Ray with his pistol. The building's guard dog, Lisa, started barking frantically after Ray started calling for her and scared the attacker away. "Nothing so much happened. People have a lot worse things in life. But it was like, okay, I'm not going to wait for strike three. I felt the whole universe was telling me, 'You're not supposed to be here right now,'" she said. Ray ended up moving after this encounter, not knowing that she was on her way to becoming a famous cook.
Rachael Ray got a lot of heat for endorsing Dunkin'
Rachael Ray believes in balance — eating healthy is important to her, but she also won't forfeit the occasional donut. So when Dunkin' (formerly Dunkin' Donuts) asked her to collaborate with them in 2009, she was more than happy to do so. Others in the food industry, however, did not agree with her decision to partner with the company.
Renowned chef Anthony Bourdain said that he thought Ray's endorsement of Dunkin' was despicable. He called her "evil" for agreeing to work with the company and likened her partnership with Dunkin' to "peddling crack to kids." Ray later admitted to ABC News that the partnership with Dunkin' "wasn't the greatest thing for my PR." However, despite the nasty backlash, Ray honored her partnership with the company. She explained that Dunkin' was putting in some effort to make their product healthier in small ways, one of which included getting rid of all trans fats.
As for Bourdain, Ray opted to kill him with kindness. "I absolutely love Tony Bourdain. I have an enormous amount of respect for him. It's a free country." she said.
Her aunt died tragically
Rachael Ray's 77-year-old aunt, Geraldine Dominica Scuderi, tragically died on November 29, 2013, while she was house-sitting for Ray's mother in Queensbury, just outside Lake George. Camera footage acquired after the incident showed that Scuderi accidentally locked herself out of the house. She could be seen trying to break windows to get back inside after realizing her conundrum, but her attempts were unsuccessful.
Scuderi's cause of death was later said to have been a heart attack. Her daughter, Gina Mesnick, later told the National Enquirer (via USA Today) that her mother had been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. "At some point in the evening, I suspect that, because of her condition, she had trouble breathing and collapsed in the driveway and basically died there. Her body wasn't found until the following morning," Mesnick said.
Ray was busy finishing up the latest season of her show at the time of her aunt's death. Her spokesperson told The New York Post that Scuderi's death came as a big shock to the family. "Rachael and her family were shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic and untimely passing of her aunt in late November," they said.
Her aunt's death caused a rift in her family
After Geraldine Dominica Scuderi's death, her daughter, Gina Mesnick, publicly accused Ray and her family of not caring about her mother. She made it clear that she blamed them for her death and accused them of being negligent.
"My mother is dead today because [the] Ray family neglected her," Mesnick told the National Enquirer (via USA Today). "I want the world to know the truth about them and just how they treat their own family. ... Mom was paid $300 to house-sit for her sister five days a week — but was never given a key," Mesnick said, adding that security camera footage shows that, after her mother failed to break a window to get back inside the house, she tried the garage door, which opens with a keypad. However, the keypad was no longer connected to the door. Mesnick says that this was never communicated to her mom.
Stories about the Ray family rift ran wild in the media, but the storm seemed to calm a bit after Ray's brother, Emmanuel Ray, spoke to Radar and confirmed that Scuderi's cause of death had been a heart attack, not exposure to the extreme cold. He added that Mesnick's accusations had been hurtful to the Ray family.
Rachael Ray's cousin publicly criticized her for not attending her aunt's funeral
Rachael Ray's cousin, Gina Mesnick, didn't exactly put the Food Network star in a good light when she blamed her and her family for her mother's tragic death, so when Ray didn't show up to her aunt's funeral, her absence sparked even more drama. An upset Mesnick later told the National Enquirer, "I doubt that Rachael shed a single tear over my mom's death" (via The New York Post).
Ray never publicly responded to her cousin's accusations, but her brother, Emmanuel Ray, spoke to Radar, telling the outlet that his sister had wanted to be at the funeral but couldn't rearrange her schedule. He added that the rest of their family wasn't upset with Ray for missing the funeral. "It's sad that Rachael's getting dragged into this when she really has nothing to do with it," Emmanuel said. "She works very hard, and not only does she work for herself, but everyone she cares about. The people that work for her, the people around her, including Geraldine's [her late aunt's] family. She's been very good to them, and I'm sorry they've decided to degrade it for this," he added.
Her dog food brand got sued
Rachael Ray is a dog lover, so it comes as no surprise that she eventually launched her own dog food brand, but it came under scrutiny in 2018 when claims that the food didn't live up to its all-natural claims started surfacing.
Ray's brand, Nutrish, faced a class action lawsuit brought against it by Markeith Parks, a disgruntled customer from New York. Parks claimed that the dog food contained glyphosate, which she said has a "potent biocide and endocrine disruptor, with detrimental health effects that are still becoming known." Glyphosate, which is a popular weed killer, was not disclosed on the food's packaging, and in court documents, Parks said that this omission proved that Nutrish was deceiving its customers and selling them a product that was not natural and potentially harmful.
Ray had a PR nightmare on her hands after the lawsuit was filed, but the case eventually got thrown out by a judge in 2021.
Rachael Ray's dog died during the pandemic
Rachael Ray's 2020 was extra sucky — not just because of the pandemic, but also because her beloved dog, Isaboo, died. It was a terrible loss for Ray. Speaking to Extra, she said she remained grateful that she could be a dog parent to Isaboo. "When I lost my dog, I was so grateful that I could be with her the last several months of her life. ... She died in my arms," Ray said. "I felt guilty and grateful at the same time. ... People suffered actual human loss from COVID or because they couldn't get care."
Ray took to Instagram to share the sad news of Isaboo's passing. "[T]oday @johnmcusimano and I mourn the loss of a dog; a pitbull who taught us more about unconditional love, empathy, and understanding of one another than we could have ever imagined," Ray wrote in the caption. She added that Isaboo's energy and fun-spirited personality will be dearly missed. "She was a fighter," Ray wrote. She also used the post as an opportunity to encourage people to adopt animals in need.
She lost her house in a devastating fire
A couple of months after losing her dog, Isaboo, Rachael Ray also lost her upstate New York house in a devastating fire. Speaking to Extra, Ray explained how the fire started. "The chimney burped under the roof," she said. During the Season 15 premiere of the "Rachael Ray" show, Ray gave viewers a look at the ruins of her house. "It took about one hour for this house to come down — and in my mind, it took decades before it was even built. In the years that I lived here, I learned an awful lot. In the few weeks since it burned, I think I've learned even more," Ray told viewers (via USA Today).
Ray and her husband were getting ready to have dinner in front of the fireplace when someone who was riding an ATV in the area saw that their house's roof was ablaze and raced to their backyard to tell them. Ray and her husband had been unaware that the fire had broken out and rushed outside to see their house's roof engulfed in flames. Ray raced upstairs to grab precious belongings, and as she made her way to the second floor, reality started to sink in. "I heard the fire in the walls. It was blood-curdling and chilling from head to toe," she recalled.
The damage was so severe that Ray's house had to be rebuilt from the ground up.
Her apartment flooded during a hurricane
As if losing her home in a fire wasn't already tragic enough, Rachael Ray found herself facing another tragedy a year later when her New York apartment failed to withstand Hurricane Ida's wrath. The worst part? Ray and her husband had just finished some renovations. "Ida took it out. And I mean, out. Down hard," Ray told People in the aftermath. "Like, literally every speaker in the ceiling, the fireplace, every seam in the wall. ... It was like the apartment just literally melted, like in 'Wicked' or something."
The city was in chaos after the storm, so Ray and her husband endured a weeklong wait before they could get an assessment of the damage. When the remediation team finally showed up, however, they made everything worse. Ray recalled how they made a hole in the wall and accidentally hit a main water pipe. Another flood ensued, and this time, it didn't just affect Ray's apartment, which was on the sixth floor, but also those below her. Ray could not believe her bad luck at this point. The very people who were supposed to help her clean up the mess turned out to make everything a whole lot worse. "Tell me you would not feel like a kicked can," she lamented.
Rachael managed to cope after a year of hardships by remaining optimistic. "[We] have so much to be grateful for," she told People. "There are so much worse positions we could be in."
Rachael Ray has been questioned about her decision not to have kids
Rachael Ray has never kept her desire to remain child-free a secret — and for very logical reasons. Still, she's been questioned about this decision on more than one occasion.
During an interview for ABC's "Nightline" segment, Ray reiterated that she loved children and enjoyed having them in the kitchen, but that she wouldn't be able to juggle both having kids and her job without neglecting one or the other. "I have an enormous amount of hours that have to be dedicated to work," she explained (via Salon). "For me personally, I would need more time to feel like I'd be a good mom to my own child. I feel like a borderline good mom to my dog. So I can't imagine if it was a human baby." Many can probably relate to Ray's point of view. She added that just imagining having to take time off work stressed her out because she relied on its momentum. "I feel like it would be unfair, not only to the child but to the people I work with," she said. When asked about her decision by People a few years prior, Ray gave it to them straight. "I don't have time. I work too much to be an appropriate parent," she said.
When ABC asked Ray if she thought she was missing out by not having kids, her response was pretty blunt. "I don't feel like I am. I really don't."