The Tragic Real-Life Story Of Gordon Ramsay
Trigger warning: This article contains mentions of domestic violence, drug abuse, and pregnancy loss.
You might know him as the screaming chef on "Hell's Kitchen," the genius behind dozens of delicious recipes, or the holder of 17 Michelin stars. However, there was once a chance that Gordon Ramsay may not have even ventured into the world of food at all. From his humble beginnings to his success as a restaurateur and television presenter, the chef has had to overcome a lot in his life, but he doesn't let his painful past get in the way of his many achievements.
While speaking on "The High Performance Podcast" in October 2023, Ramsay was asked to give his definition of high performance. The chef answered, "High performance is about relentlessness, in my mind. ... I had a proper insight to perfection early on in my career, and that's a path that, you know, there's lanes in life, isn't there? And I'm done with that bulls*** about, 'Stay in your lane.' I want to own my lane, and that's high performance."
It's with this mindset that the chef has endured unthinkable hardship, yet somehow managed to still come out on top in the culinary field time and again. Here's the tragic real-life story of Gordon Ramsay.
Gordon Ramsay grew up around domestic abuse
Gordon Ramsay was born in 1966 in Glasgow, Scotland. At the age of nine, his family relocated to Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Sadly, his upbringing was less than idyllic as his family moved around often, living in several council houses over the years. He also endured his father's drunken abuse throughout his childhood.
The chef penned an article for CNN in September 2007 about the abusive behavior his dad exhibited towards his mom, writing, "Growing up, my father was less than a perfect role model. I watched how he battled alcoholism and how he became terribly violent with my mum, to the point where she feared for her life. Every time he got violent, any present that my brother, sisters, or I had given mum would be smashed, simply because he knew it belonged to her."
Ramsay wrote that there were a number of instances where his father was arrested and his mom was hospitalized, which resulted in he and his siblings being taken to a group home. Thankfully, since his difficult childhood, Gordon Ramsay had an incredible transformation, and he's been inspired to be the role model for his children that he never had himself.
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
An injury ruined Gordon Ramsey's soccer career
Gordon Ramsay's passion for soccer began when he was seven years old thanks to his uncle taking him to games. He rooted for Glasgow's Rangers Football Club, and when his family moved to England, he began playing the sport at school. Ramsay was clearly talented, so when he was only 15 years old, his family moved back to Scotland and he signed on to play with his beloved Rangers. Tragically, the young chef had only been playing with the team for a couple of years when he got injured in 1985.
In May 2002, Ramsay penned an article for The Observer, detailing how his dream of playing as a professional soccer player was crushed. "Then I got my bad injury. I tore my ligaments, and it was a heart-ache. ... I still remember [the coach] telling me they were letting me go. He was f***ing ruthless. We were only in there [for] about five minutes and I wanted to cry but I couldn't cry. ... I couldn't swallow it, I was gutted. F***ing gutted. I can remember coming back downstairs and thinking 'F***ing hell.' And worst of all I still had to tell my dad," he wrote.
With his soccer career down the drain, Ramsay had to set his sights on a new passion: becoming a gourmet chef. He completed his degree in hotel management a couple years later and embarked on his cooking career.
Gordon Ramsay's colleague fell to his death
Gordon Ramsay has worked with several talented cooks in his time, but it's clear he saw something special in his protege David Dempsey. Ramsay appointed Demspey as head chef at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London, and they worked closely together until one calamitous night. In May 2003, Dempsey fell 40 feet from a window ledge after breaking into an apartment. The toxicology report via The Guardian indicated that he had 1.36 milligrams of cocaine in his system (.9 milligrams could be classed as "severe toxicity," according to the toxicologist).
In October 2017, Ramsay told The Sun, "I wouldn't wish that on anybody. I physically broke down. I couldn't go behind that glass screen and identify a guy that I loved dearly. It took years to get over that."
After his colleague's death, Ramsay set off to learn more about cocaine and expose the tragic impact it can have. In a clip from his 2017 documentary, "Gordon Ramsay on Cocaine," he spoke on his experience with the drug. "I saw cocaine quite a lot in my career. I've been served it, I've been given it, I've had my hand shaken and left with little wraps of foil. I've been asked to dust cocaine on top of souffles, to put it on as icing sugar. Coke's everywhere. It's spiraling out of control. ... Yet no one wants to talk about it, but they all want to f***ing snort it," he said.
Gordon Ramsay watched his pet pigs get slaughtered
In 2005, Gordon Ramsay's reality series, "The F Word," premiered. It centered around his guests creating meals for up to 50 customers, who would judge the food, as well as educational segments around different dishes. By this time, the chef had already created a hardcore persona for himself, often shouting at the contestants for mistakes made while using unsavory language. However, Ramsay set himself up for an emotional, ego-shaking moment when he decided to use his pet Berkshire pigs' slaughter as an educational segment on a 2006 episode. Although he raised the sows with the intention of someday making them into food, he made the dreadful error of naming them (Trinny and Susannah) and had grown attached to them.
The brutal process aired on Channel 4 uncensored with the approval of animal rights advocates as they believed the slaughter in its entirety would encourage viewers to embrace vegetarianism. After witnessing his beloved pets die during the episode of "The F Word," Ramsay told the camera, "The whole operation is extraordinary, I mean quite emotional in a way. I felt sick as a f***ing dog in there. Next, I'll just, you know, think of something really exciting to cook with them in a way that can make me a little bit happy right now. But it's not a nice experience in there."
Gordon Ramsay's brother struggled with a heroin addiction
Gordon Ramsay grew up with two sisters and a brother, Ronnie Ramsay. We know that their home life was traumatic, and while the chef was able to escape his troubled past, his brother unfortunately could not. In April 2023, Ramsay opened up about how Ronnie's struggle with heroin addiction began while speaking with Spencer Matthews during the "Big Fish" podcast.
"I think the drugs were a consequence of being the blue-eyed boy in the family and then being dropped by your dad. ... I think it's about the environment you're in. And when you're in that mix, it's very hard to get out, so sadly he couldn't get out of that scenario," Ramsay explained.
In February 2007, Ramsay's brother was arrested in Indonesia for possession of 100 milligrams of heroin. Two months later, he was sentenced to 10 months in jail, a lenient sentence considering the country's strict laws could've resulted in up to 10 years of jail time. A couple years later, Ronnie was spotted back in England living unhoused. He told the Daily Mail at the time that his brother refused to help him. However, the celebrity chef had previously stated in his 2008 autobiography, "Humble Pie," that he had paid for Ronnie to attend rehab five times already.
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
Gordon Ramsay had a near-death experience in 2008
While filming Season 4 of "The F Word" in 2008, Ramsay traveled to Iceland to showcase a staple ingredient of the region: puffin. It was on this trip that the chef had a near-death experience when he fell off a cliff and into the freezing water.
Around the time the episode aired, Ramsay told The Sun via Mirror about the terrifying experience during which he was underwater for 45 seconds. He explained, "I thought I was a goner. They say cats have nine lives. I've had 12 already and I don't know how many more I'll have. I remember thinking, 'Oh f***.' My boots and my waterproofs were dragging me down.' I'm an extremely good swimmer, but I couldn't get to the surface. I was panicking and my lungs were filling with water." The chef added that he was left in a daze when he finally managed to get out of the water.
Rumors of Gordon Ramsay's alleged affair surfaced
Gordon Ramsay and his stunning wife Tana have been together a remarkably long time, having met in 1992. The couple married in December 1996 and celebrated their 27th wedding anniversary in 2023, a huge feat and not just because of the age gap between Ramsay and his wife. Their marriage has overcome some major hurdles, including rumors of the chef's alleged affair, which came to light in 2008.
Sarah Symonds, author of the book "Having an Affair? A Handbook for the Other Woman" claimed she and Ramsay had slept together on seven separate occasions after meeting in a nightclub in 2001. She claimed that the chef had disclosed to her how unhappy he was in his marriage and that he'd also slept with two other women. Ramsay denied Symonds' allegations, telling the Daily Mail at the time, "Come on though, if I was really going to cheat it wouldn't be with a complete slapper." Despite the public humiliation, he and Tana managed to work through the drama and have remained inseparable since.
Gordon Ramsay's father-in-law cost him a lot of money
The cheating allegations fizzled out over time, allowing Gordon Ramsay and his wife a chance to relax. However, little did they know that her dad Chris Hutcheson was conspiring against them. In October 2010, Ramsay fired his father-in-law from Gordon Ramsay Holdings as chief executive after he took out $2.5 million in loans from the chef's company. Between the time he was fired and March 2011, a scorned Hutcheson conspired with his two sons, who still held positions at Gordon Ramsay Holdings, to hack into the company's computers thousands of times.
Ramsay's father-in-law was sentenced in June 2017 to six months behind bars. In October 2017, Ramsay surprisingly told The Herald that he and his wife had already forgiven Hutcheson. "He did some stupid mistakes that he's put his hand up and accepted and I'd like to think that we've all moved on," Ramsay said. "Until the truth came out it was very testing for Tana and me because I think there were moments where she thought 'Was that Gordon or was that my dad?' It was a hard pill for her to swallow. Knowing her father was out to destroy us as a family. But she's had it out with him. He's laid his cards on the table. He's apologized to all of us and I like to think there's a line in the sand now."
Gordon Ramsay and his wife suffered a pregnancy loss in 2016
Today, Gordon Ramsay and his wife Tana share six children, with their eldest born in 1998 and their youngest having arrived in November 2023. There's no doubt that the Michelin star-decorated chef and his wife love being parents, but the journey hasn't always been easy as their two youngest children were born after a very difficult time in their lives.
In a June 2016 Facebook post, Ramsay announced to his followers that he and Tana had lost their son Rocky, who had been prematurely born at just five months gestation. "We had a devastating weekend as Tana has sadly miscarried our son at five months. We're together healing as a family, but we want to thank everyone again for all your amazing support and well wishes," the chef wrote.
Tana later told Metro in November 2020 about her experience with the pregnancy loss, stating, "I have to be honest when it happened to me, I found it really hard when people would talk to me and not mention it because it was like it never happened. ... You go from having a baby kicking inside of you to suddenly it's not there, and it was a really hard experience."
Gordon Ramsay lost $73 million during the pandemic
The pandemic hit the food industry hard, from layoffs to temporary closures, which resulted in insurmountable lost income for restaurateurs. According to CNN, between 2020 and 2022, around 72,000 restaurants are believed to have closed their doors permanently in the United States alone. While chefs tend to make a decent wage, celebrities like Gordon Ramsay obviously rake in even more. That doesn't mean that he didn't feel the impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown though.
By the time the pandemic hit London, Ramsay owned 18 restaurants in the city, three of which he had opened in 2020 alone. In February 2021, he told The Sun in a Zoom interview, "In December we had £10 million ($12.7 million) worth of reservations wiped out overnight. As of 19th March to 3rd February this year we've suffered £57.5 million ($73.3 million) worth of turnover down. I'm in it."
Despite taking advantage of the government-issued furlough grants in order to retain jobs in his restaurants, Ramsay's staff was still reduced by nearly 300 people between August 2020 and August 2021. "I get criticized for being wealthy, but the responsibility on my shoulders – the livelihoods at stake — is huge," he told The Sun. "I feel that pressure enormously, and the impact of all this has been devastating and incredibly costly."
Gordon Ramsay was diagnosed with arthritis
Working as a full time chef involves a lot of standing and moving around, and given Gordon Ramsay's impressive work ethic, there's no doubt he's pushed his body to the limits over the years. Unfortunately, it's come at a cost as he learned from his doctor in February 2021 that he has arthritis. Ramsay learned of his condition after hurting his knee during a run, and as he told The Sun at the time, he didn't take the news well.
"I've just come off two weeks on crutches, as I had meniscus surgery. I [hurt myself] running up the hill in Richmond Park, bolting up it. It was f***ing painful. And when I got the X-rays back, the doctor said, 'You've got arthritis in your knee.' I'd never heard that word in relation to me before," the chef explained. "He told me I needed to start slowing down. ... I am slightly scared of stopping but do know I will have to slow down at some stage." Ramsay elaborated that he realized he had to start thinking of his children's wellbeing when it comes to his health.
Gordon Ramsay's pub was targeted by squatters
It seems like the Michelin chef can't catch a break. After enduring hardship after hardship, Gordon Ramsay faced yet another hurdle when his West London pub, York & Albany, was targeted by squatters in April 2024 while it was temporarily closed for renovation. The group of around 60 people reportedly barricaded themselves inside the chef's pub and boarded up the windows. It would take 10 days to clear them out. Luckily, there was little to no damage done, but it cost nearly $10,000 to clean up the mess the squatters left.
Following the incident, Ramsay decided to increase the security around his London home while it was also undergoing renovations. He hired guards with dogs to patrol the premises at all hours, and many believed this to be a direct response to the squatting ordeal.
A source told The Sun in May 2024, "The only thing more important to Gordon than his business empire is his family, so he's not sparing any expense to keep them safe. Seeing the occupation of one of his premises spooked him, and he realized the same fate could befall his family home if he didn't take extreme precautions. Now he's decided the security measures — no matter how costly — will stay in place after the refurbishment of the house."