While working on her memoir, Ina Garten spent some time revisiting memories from her childhood. In April, the the Barefoot Contessa star, 76, revealed that her "terrible childhood" influenced her decision to not have kids of her own. "It was nothing I wanted to recreate," she said on Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ podcast, Wiser Than Me, at the time. In her upcoming memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, she shares more details about her childhood.
Ina's father was physically abusive and she was "terrified" of him when she was growing up, she revealed to People in a recent interview.
"I was physically afraid of my dad. I literally remember thinking he would kill me if I did something," Ina revealed to People. Her father hit her and pulled her hair when he was disappointed in her, she told the outlet. This meant she was often lonely, as she spent much of her time locked in her bedroom in attempt to keep herself safe.
"I basically spent my entire childhood in my bedroom with a door closed," she told People. "I think it was just protection. It was just to keep myself safe."
The possibility of her father being angry and becoming violent made her feel "afraid" all the time.
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"If there's a threat of violence, you're always afraid, even when it's not happening," she told People. She described her mother as "unsupportive."
In a 2021 interview on Al Roker's podcast, Cooking Up a Storm, she spoke about how her traumatic childhood experiences might've pushed her to choose a career that involved "connecting with people," since that was something she missed out on as a child.
"I think what I was craving as a child was connecting with people and I felt that if you feed them, they always show up and you have a good time together," she said at the time. "That was the connection I loved, so I kept doing it over and over again."
While Ina was not necessarily interested in writing a memoir about her life, a friend encouraged her to do so, she previously revealed on Today. Her friend told her: "Somebody’s going to write your story and it should be you." Be Ready When the Luck Happens comes out on October 1, 2024.
