Ina Garten Opens Up About Childhood Abuse By Her Father: ‘I Remember Thinking He Would Kill Me’ (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Ina Gartenhad a “very lonely childhood.”

Thecelebrity cookopens up about suffering physical and emotional abuse from her late parents, Charles and Florence Rosenberg, for the first time in her memoir,Be Ready When the Luck Happens(out Oct. 1). In an interview with PEOPLE, Garten, 76, recalls being afraid of her father, a surgeon, who would hit her and pull her hair if she did something he disapproved of.

“I was terrified,” says theBarefoot Contessastar. “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.”

Gartengrew up in Connecticutwith her brother Ken, who was also a victim of their father’s anger. Garten spent most of her time locked in her bedroom, she says.

Ina Garten at home in East Hampton, N.Y. on Aug. 26.Allison Michael Orenstein

Allison Michael Orenstein

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

InBe Ready When the Luck Happens, Garten describes her mother as controlling. She tells PEOPLE that her bedroom, the same one that she calls her “safe haven,” was decorated in peach and white even though she wanted it purple, because Florence told her it would “turn out badly.”

“It was something she said to me a lot,” she adds.

Ina Garten (right) as a child.ina garten/instagram

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“I wouldn’t be surprised if she was diagnosed with Asperger’s [Syndrome],” says Garten. “She really didn’t know how to have a relationship, which is why I think, as I’ve gotten older, having relationships is so important to me.”

Garten experienced a shift when she met hernow-husband, Jeffrey, when she was 16 years old. “Everything changed when I met Jeffrey,” she says.

Ina Garten and Jeffrey Garten at home in East Hampton, N.Y. on Aug. 26.Allison Michael Orenstein

After four years of dating, the two married in 1968. “[My mother] thought I was too young to get married,” Garten recalls, “but it was the first time in my life when I just said to her, ‘I know you don’t think this is a good idea. And for the first time, I’m really sorry to tell you this, but I don’t care. I’m doing this.'”

Garten made peace with her father later in life, but never reconciled with her mother. “He, in his own way, apologized and my mom never acknowledged it,” she says.

Be Ready When the Luck Happenscomes out Oct. 1 from Crown Publishing Group and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.

source: people.com