Ina Garten Revealed She Once Considered Divorcing Her Husband, Jeffrey

“I needed to be on my own."

With 28 seasons of Barefoot Contessa and in her many cookbooks, including 2016 favorite Cooking for Jeffrey, Ina Garten has brought fans into her kitchen, her life, and her affectionate 56-year-long marriage to Jeffrey Garten. While the world has only known the two as a PDA-loving, happily-married couple, their relationship wasn't always so warm and fuzzy. In Ina's forthcoming memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, the beloved television cook opened up about her marital troubles that almost ended in divorce in the '70s.

According to People, at the time, Ina had been working long hours running her specialty food store Barefoot Contessa, and Jeffrey "expected a wife that would make dinner." She had just quit her job in the White House, where Jeffrey still worked. He stayed in D.C. and traveled to the Hamptons on the weekends, where Ina's store was located.

"When I bought Barefoot Contessa, I shattered our traditional roles—­took a baseball bat to them and left them in pieces," she wrote in her memoir, which hits shelves on October 1. "While I was still cooking, cleaning, shopping, managing at the store, I was doing it as a businesswoman, not a wife. My responsibilities made it impossible for me to even think about anything else."

She continued on, saying Jeffrey's weekend visits were a distraction from her work at the store. "Jeffrey was fully formed and living the life he wanted to live. I wasn’t, and I wouldn’t be able to figure out who I was or what I wanted unless I was on my own."

At a crossroads, Ina revealed she felt distance was the only answer to their troubles, so she asked Jeffrey for a separation.

"It was the hardest thing I ever did. I told him that I needed to be on my own. I didn’t say whether it was for now...or forever. In true Jeffrey form, he said, 'If you feel like you need to be on your own, you need to do it.' He packed his bag and went home to Washington with no plan to come back. I buried my emotions and threw myself into my work."

The couple later reunited in D.C. over the winter. While Ina was doubtful they could ever make things work, Jeffrey questioned what he could do to change her mind, with hope.

"I just couldn’t live with him in a traditional 'man and wife' relationship. Jeffrey hadn’t done anything wrong," she wrote. "He was just doing what every man before him had done. But we were living in a new era, and that behavior wasn’t okay with me anymore. I had changed."

Ina told her husband he needed to see a therapist, so that he could fully understand what she was feeling. "He went once for an hour and totally got it," she told People. What followed was increased communication and taking care of one another as "equals" that allowed them to come out the other end stronger than ever.

The Food Network star looks back on that period without regrets, but rather appreciation and reflection. "It changed him," she added, "but it also changed me too."

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