Real-Life Love
Ina Garten Reveals Her Secrets to Making Jeffrey Garten Marriage Work After 5 Decades
Ina Garten knows how to whip up a great dish and keep her relationship with husband Jeffrey Garten in tip-top shape. The couple, who went on their first date in 1963 and tied the knot five years later, are still happily married today.
The Barefoot Contessa host is opening up about what makes her longtime marriage work — and it’s very simple! Forget about grand gestures, Jeffrey and Ina believe that the little things have the most impact on their romance.
“He’s the most important thing in my life, and he makes me feel like I’m the most important thing in his life,” she told Us Weekly. “And he might be in China or Kenya or New Haven at Yale, but I know that no matter what’s going on, I’m the center of his life. And that’s just incredibly grounding. And I think that’s what makes a good relationship. Yeah. And he’s funny and smart and adorable, so that helps, too.”
However, the celebrity chef admitted to one more secret: “And he unloads the dishwasher.” Listen up, men!
Ina noted that the simple act is crucial to her. “You don’t want to have a scavenger hunt afterwards trying to cook,” she noted, which is why she professed to preferring her husband’s decision to unload the dishwasher instead of having a second pair of hands in the kitchen. When asked if he helped out with the cooking portion of their rituals, Ina said, “No, never. He does do the dishes though, which is wonderful.” She continued, “It kind of started during the pandemic because I was so overwhelmed with so many things to do — including filming a TV show by myself — that he said, ‘What if I unload the dishwasher?’ I’m like, who would say no to that?”
Coming up on their 57th wedding anniversary, Ina isn’t shy about the low points in her relationship. In her memoir, Ready When the Luck Happens, she revealed that the two had a brief separation stint in their marriage.
“[He] never tells me what to do, always just totally supportive,” the Food Network star said. “And yes, he writes me love letters and every once in a while he sends them to the wrong person. Which leads to some polarity.” One of the people he mistakingly sent the love letters to is her publicist, Kate Tyler, who “sent it back and said, ‘I don’t think this was meant for me,” and Ina quipped, “He’s done that more than once.”
Thinking back on their first date, she recalled, “I took him to a bar, but I couldn’t get in. I was too young, so then I took him to a coffee house, so what I ordered on my first date was coffee.”
