Ina Garten on Why She and Jeffrey Never Had Children

Ina Garten of “Barefoot Contessa” recently revealed her reason for staying childless despite been happily married for decades.

Ina Garten is popularly known for her Food Network cooking show, “Barefoot Contessa.” Her delightful methods of cooking have that homey feel that fans love. An avid fan would notice that the robust beauty has never had her children appear on the show like her husband sometimes does.

Garten has enjoyed a very enviable marriage with her husband of well over four decades, Jeffrey. Going against popular beliefs about raising a family, the pair agreed to never have children.

While speaking in an interview on the Kate Couric podcast, Garten went to great lengths to explain the reasons for her unusual choice.

Garten:

"I really felt, I feel, that I would have never been able to have the life I've had. So it's a choice, and that was the choice I made."

According to her, the responsibility of raising children is no mean feat, and she would have most likely been too engrossed in growing the family.

Garten, who has a whopping net worth of about $40 million, has risen fast to fame even becoming a popular household name. Her show, “Barefoot Contessa” is all about homemade meals and so, has become a fan-favorite. Going by her gentle and pleasant mannerisms, it would be so hard to tell that the youthful beauty wasn't a mother.

Garten and her husband Jeffrey have been married for 48 years and still enjoy an excellent relationship. Garten, also while speaking with Katie Couric, disclosed that their coming to the decision was not too hard and that she never felt like it was a controversial subject. She said:

“I never felt judged by it — maybe people did, but I didn't notice.”

The socialite went on to admit that there is, however, one thing they miss, and that is the clique of parents that would have been created with her children’s friends’ parents.

She said:

“I think the one thing that we miss is a lot of people’s friends are the parents of their kids’ friends. So we never had that connection with other people that I see, that network.”

Despite this, the lovely pair are surrounded by an amazing elite group of friends and family. Garten and Jeffrey do seem to be soul mates. The duo first met when the author, just fifteen years old, went to visit her brother at Dartmouth College, where Jeffrey was a student himself.

Lovestruck, the pair went on to tie the knot some five years later, a match made in heaven.