Ina Garten Looks Back on 4-Month Separation From Husband Jeffrey

Ina Garten and her husband, Jeffrey Garten, were only separated for four months before reconciling.

“We got married in 1968 and in the ‘70s women are, kind of, sorting things out,” Ina, 76, said during a Tuesday, December 24, podcast appearance. “When we got married, it was assumed that he would be ‘the husband’ and I would be ‘the wife’ and I would make dinner and we would do the finances.”

She continued, “We would have the prescribed roles, and I think those roles annoyed me in the ‘70s — even though Jeffrey thought of me as an equal. We just had roles that we were playing.”

Once Ina bought her first Barefoot Contessa shop, she saw her mindset shift.

Related: Ina Garten and Husband Jeffrey Garten’s Relationship Timeline

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney Ina Garten and her husband, Jeffrey Garten, have the recipe for a long-lasting marriage. The pair first crossed paths when she was 15 years old and visiting her older brother at Dartmouth College. Jeffrey, who was a Dartmouth student at the time, saw Ina through a window. “Look at […]

“I had my own business and I had my own life,” she recalled. “I found those rules to be really confining, so I just said to him, ‘I just feel like I need to be only own for a little while.’”

In response, Jeffrey, now 78, told the lifestyle maven that, “If you feel like you need to be on your own, you need to be on your own.” Their separation, however, only lasted a few months.

“We, kind of, took a break for about four months,” Ina said. “He was with the State Department, he went on this big trip around the world and afterward, at the end of the year, we met in Palm Springs and we just talked. We just sat and talked about what he wanted and what I wanted. He always has this great attitude, ‘Let’s just figure out what each of us wants and how we can do both of them.’”

Ina further gushed that Jeffrey “is the best” and “should be a role model for every guy,” also crediting the former financier with helping her find her voice.

“He really is so wise,” Ina said. “His advice is never, ‘This will be good for me.’ It’s always, ‘This would be good for us.’”

Ina also credits therapy with improving their relationship.

“I remember going to [my therapist] the first day and I said, ‘I’m not having fun. I mean, I work all the time and it’s easy to get wrapped up in that,’” she recalled on Tuesday. “It was true for us for a long time when Jeffrey would leave on Monday [for a work trip]. .. The weekdays I pretty much had on my own, so I would just work all the time.”

Once Ina started embracing new hobbies — many with Jeffrey’s encouragement — they were able to get their romance back on track.

“He made me feel like I could do anything and that we would talk stuff out and he would say, ‘Have you thought about that’ and we would have a conversation right from the beginning,” Ina said. “He would say to me, ‘What do you love? If you love it, you’ll be really good at it.’ He knows I have a lot of enthusiasm and energy for things.”