Ina Garten says she has no regrets about the life she and her husband, Jeffrey Garten, built without children.
In a new interview with the New York Times, the 78-year-old celebrity chef reflected on that choice, saying parenthood would likely have changed the course of their marriage and careers. “I think it would have been difficult, and I think Jeffrey and I would have had a different life together,” she said.
Garten emphasized that she does not view one path as better than the other. “I’m not saying it’s a better life or a worse life,” she explained, noting that there were periods when Jeffrey’s ambitions took them in very different directions — including the time he decided to launch a business in Japan and moved there.
During that period, Ina was based in East Hampton, and the couple kept their relationship going by traveling “back and forth” between their separate worlds.
“We figured it out,” she recalled. Looking back, the Barefoot Contessa star said that kind of flexibility may not have been possible with children, especially while she was working long hours at her store, managing catering jobs and running the business day to day.
The couple eventually married in 1968.
Before her big breakthrough, Ina had been working for the government when she saw a classified ad for a gourmet foot store in West Hampton, called The Barefoot Contessa, for sale.
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She transformed the store, began catering and went on to author nearly a dozen bestselling cookbooks and host a successful Food Network series.
“I think it would have been much harder,” Ina told the NYT of what her life would have looked like if she had children.
“I’ve never looked back on the decision and thought, ‘I should have done it differently.’ I understand how my friends have wonderful families, and they really enjoy being parents, but it’s just not something I ever wanted to do.”
In her 2024 memoir, “Be Ready When the Luck Happens,” Ina also revealed that an unhappy childhood contributed to her decision not to have kids.
“When I got married, I just thought I would be the wife and we would have children and we would have a traditional relationship,” she told Hoda Kotb in 2025.
“In my 20s, I kind of resisted having children. I was like, why would I want to re-create that nightmare that I just came from? And I thought that’s what life at home with children would be. (It) never occurred to me that other people’s lives were different because that was my experience.”
Ina added in her book, “And then one day, maybe when I was around 25, I thought,’ I just don’t want to have children.’ I just don’t want to do that. And thank God [Jeffrey] is amenable to what I would I want. He wants me to be happy and it was OK.”