Ina Garten Recalls Being ‘Terrified’ of Her Father’s Abuse

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From her James Beard Award–winning cookbooks to her quarantine Cosmopolitans, Ina Garten has earned the affection of Food Network viewers and industry peers alike over the course of her career. But as detailed in her upcoming memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, the Barefoot Contessa hasn’t always had an easy life. In an interview with People, Garten opened up about her fraught relationship with her late parents, Charles and Florence Rosenberg, who she says physically and emotionally abused her as a child. Growing up in Connecticut, the 76-year-old said she suffered a “very lonely childhood” and spent much of her time locked away in her bedroom hiding from her parents. In particular, Garten recalled her father, who was a surgeon, hitting her or pulling her hair whenever he got angry with her.

“I was terrified,” Garten said. “I was physically afraid of my dad. I literally remember thinking he would kill me if I did something. I was physically afraid of him. And my mother just was unsupportive.”

“If there’s a threat of violence, you’re always afraid, even when it’s not happening,” she added. “So I basically spent my entire childhood in my bedroom with a door closed. I think it was just protection. It was just to keep myself safe.”

While her mother was less physically abusive than her father, Garten says she still spent much of her time in her “safe haven” trying to avoid her mother, whom she called “controlling.” Looking back, the author wondered whether her mother may have had Asperger’s syndrome — a condition on the autism spectrum — because she “really didn’t know how to have a relationship.” While Garten’s father ultimately apologized for the abuse and the two were able to reconcile before he died, the author says her mother “never acknowledged” the harm she’d caused her daughter.

“I think I overcame my childhood just by sheer determination,” Garten said. “I just wasn’t about to spend my life like that.” Garten married her husband, Jeffrey, in 1968, and now partakes in giant-cocktail hour whenever she pleases. Her memoir, which she hopes “will inspire readers to find their own unique story,” is due out in October from Celadon Books.