While she's known as being a bubbly on-camera personality and cook,
Rachael Ray has been called a homewrecker, a crack peddler,
and so much more. Life behind the lights and cameras has often been tragic for the TV chef.
"Welcome and sit and relax. I love firsts and this is the first show!"
Rachael Ray is known for many things — high levels of energy, widespread knowledge of cooking despite
never having attended culinary school, and tons of drive — but one of her most defining
characteristics is her gravelly voice. Whether you watched her long-running syndicated show or not,
chances are that if you are familiar with Ray, you are also familiar with her signature rasp.
While Ray has sounded this way for as long as she has been famous,
cigarettes or any other voice-altering substance are not to blame. In fact,
Ray has struggled with her voice for her entire life, and it was especially bad
pre-puberty. Ray's voice box has continuously been a problem for her, as she caught croup,
an infection that affects the airway, when she was growing up. Ray told People magazine in 2006,
"I had a lot of croup as a kid so I don't have the strongest vocal cords to begin with. I went
to a voice doctor [who] taught me exercises for my throat and to cut back a little on the caffeine."
In 2008, Ray also had to go in for surgery to remove a cyst on one of her vocal cords,
but she was back to her bubbly, gravelly-voiced self after a week of strict vocal rest.
Ray moved to New York City in 1995, only one year after new crime-fighting tactics were
introduced. Within two years, she became the victim of a violent mugging in the
lobby of her own Queens apartment building. She recounted to People,
"This kid comes in behind me — next thing I know he shoves my face up against the door,
jams a gun into my back and says, 'Give me your bag.' I flipped the top off the mace my
dad had given me when I moved to New York City, spun around and started screaming."
The robber was deterred, only to return the following week to beat Ray up in an alley.
These incidents prompted her to flee the city for upstate New York, saying,
"Dude, I got mugged twice within one week! Wouldn't you want to leave?"
"She's like the most peaceful person you could meet."
The vast majority of the hate Rachael Ray has received has come from the tabloid media or
the public. Rarely has she faced criticism from one of her peers,
so it was a huge shocker when she was called out by another big name in culinary broadcasting back
in 2009. It all began when Ray signed on to appear in advertisements for Dunkin',
which seemed like a great idea since Ray built her brand on fast and easy meals.
The partnership may have fit Ray's brand, but even she admitted to ABC News that it
turned into a PR fiasco after Anthony Bourdain called her "evil" and said she
was basically "peddling crack to kids." The late chef was by no means the only one to
bash Ray's choice — some other critics were outraged because they thought her scarf was a
symbol for Islamic extremism — but Ray appeared undaunted by the backlash. She told ABC News,
"They came to me and they said, 'We want to make healthier food for America. You
drink a lot of coffee. You grew up on Dunkin' Donuts.'"
She also noted that Dunkin' provided support for her charity, Yum-o, adding,
"They've been very supportive of me. I don't regret a thing. Not for a minute."
Rachael Ray has had some legitimate criticism thrown her way, but she has
also had a few instances of unnecessary hate. There was one particular rumor that
was so ludicrous that it was almost humorous — except the hate tossed Ray's way was real,
and no one could blame her for being upset about it.
We are, of course, talking about how Ray was reeled into the Jay-Z
and Beyoncé cheating scandal due to people on the Internet's collective
stupidity. Her name is what got her into trouble since it is strikingly
similar to that of another Rachael, who was accused of being Jay-Z's mistress.
The other Rachael was designer Rachel Roy. Much of people's belief that Roy was involved with
Jay-Z stems from an Instagram post she made about "good hair," which was interpreted as
a reference to Beyoncé's famous "Becky with the good hair" lyric. The Bey-hive went in on Roy,
but some of Bey's less astute fans saw "Rachel Roy" and immediately thought of Ray,
despite the former being a fashion designer with
no television connections. Ray then became the target of rage, receiving tweets such as,
"Never watching ur show again Rachel u r a homewrecker."
"What a difference a vowel makes." "Yeah."
"What a difference a vowel makes."
Rachael Ray married John Cusimano — a musician, actor, and lawyer — in 2005,
and fans are quite familiar with him by way of his frequent appearances on Ray's
daytime show. Unfortunately, while the host has never been accused of cheating herself,
she has for years had to deal with reports of her husband's indiscretions. Plus, she has faced a lot
of judgment from the public for her husband's actions, which have not even been proven true.
Despite the unverified nature of the rumors, Ray and Cusimano have continually had to defend
their relationship. In a 2007 interview with People, Ray confirmed she had heard about six
women her husband allegedly cheated with but made it clear she was no duped spouse, saying,
"I've known where he is every night since we've been married."
"And we have talked every day since the night we met."
The couple also felt pushed to put out an official denial in 2013 after
tabloids alleged that Cusimano was a regular at a New York City
swingers club called Checkers, with their publicist sharing,
"This is yet another pack of lies printed by the National
Enquirer who have been targeting John and Rachael for several years with no merit."
Many people can identify with not seeing eye-to-eye with a relative or even cutting
them out of the picture when the relationship becomes too toxic. In the case of Rachael Ray,
it was a more distant relative who decided to call her out in the media; her cousin, who was incensed
over the death of her mother and armed with the belief that Ray is to blame. The unfortunate death
of Ray's aunt turned into a full-on war after the TV personality and her husband skipped out
on the funeral, and the tabloids jumped on the chance to paint Ray in a negative light.
Ray's aunt, Geraldine, died after accidentally locking herself outside in freezing weather. This
occurred in November 2013 when she was house sitting for her sister, Ray's mother, Elsa,
in chilly upstate New York. In an interview with the National Enquirer, Ray's cousin, Gina, said,
"My mother is dead today because the Ray family neglected her."
When it came time for the funeral, Ray and her husband were not in attendance due to work,
with Gina blasting the couple, saying,
"It's inexcusable. It shows a total lack of caring."
"No idea why the dog chews on me. I contain nothing that would help them live a happy,
healthy life like Nutrish Whole Health Blend. I'm a stick."
When a celebrity puts their name on something, they are often expected to be held accountable
for that product. When Rachael Ray's dog food, Nutrish, faced a giant lawsuit,
Ray shouldered nearly all of the public outrage rather than simply a portion of it. People seemed
to either forget or conveniently ignore that she was not involved with the day-to-day operations
or the manufacturing of the product line when it was found to have a harmful ingredient.
The pet food line was originally manufactured by Ainsworth Pet Nutrition before being purchased
by the J.M. Smucker Company, who owned it when a $5 million class action lawsuit was filed in
2018. In the lawsuit, a consumer pointed out that the so-called "natural" dog food contained the
herbicide glyphosate, which he alleged was false advertising. A judge dismissed the case in 2019
due to a lack of specificity, but Ray already took the brunt of the harsh criticism from the media.
That is to be expected — the canine food is officially named Rachael Ray Nutrish — but one
would expect the actual defendant, Smucker, to be namechecked in the headlines too.
"You're ridiculous, you're so cute. It's okay Marti. One second,
honey. If I can do it Marti, you can."
In mid-2020, Rachael Ray lost her Upstate New York home to fire, and in 2021,
extreme flooding took her New York City apartment. But Ray lost more than just
property and material possessions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, she also
had to say goodbye to her beloved dog, Isaboo, who died in May 2020. She wrote on Instagram,
"Today @johnmcusimano and I mourn the loss of a dog; a pit bull who taught us more about
unconditional love, empathy, and understanding of one another than we could have ever imagined."
Despite her loss, Ray remained able to put things into perspective — she
recognized the gift of time that she was able to spend with Isaboo
due to the world slowing down. She explained in an interview with Extra,
"When I lost my dog I was so grateful that I could be with her the last several months of
her life... she died in my arms. I felt guilty and grateful at the same time. People suffered actual
human loss from COVID or because they couldn't get care... and how many people died alone."
A month after Isaboo died, Ray and her husband adopted another pup,
who they named Bella Boo Blue in honor of their deceased pit bull.