Ina Garten I Learned to Believe in Myself"

IN A REVEALING NEW MEMOIR, THE CELEBRITY CHEF OPENS UP ABOUT ABUSE BY HER PARENTS AND A ROCKY PERIOD IN HER MARRIAGE TO HUSBAND JEFFREY: 'DEBILITATING FEAR TAUGHT ME ENORMOUS COMPASSION'

- ANA CALDERONE

Standing in the library of her East Hampton, N.Y., home, Ina Garten cradles her husband Jeffrey's face in her hands, reassuring him that he looks handsome for the People cameras. "He's just the best," she says once he's left the room. The interaction makes it almost impossible to imagine that the Food Network star's relationship was ever anything but #couplegoals. But in her bold new memoir Be Ready When the Luck Happens, excerpted exclusively here, Ina, 76, details their separation and near divorce in the 1970s. Ina was working overtime running Barefoot Contessa-a specialty food store that would later launch her fame-and Jeffrey "expected a wife that would make dinner," she says.

"There were certain roles that we played, and I found them really annoying," says Ina. "I felt that if I just hit the pause button, I would get his attention." They came out of it stronger than ever. Jeffrey, 77, now a professor at Yale, has been her lifeline since they started dating in 1965. Her childhood in Stamford, Conn., was darkened by emotional abuse from her mother, Florence, a dietitian, and physical abuse by her father, Charles, a surgeon. "I literally remember thinking he would kill me," says Ina. "I basically spent my entire childhood in my bedroom with the door closed to keep myself safe. And then I met Jeffrey, and he showed me a totally different way to live."