Bobby Flay is one of the most popular celebrity chefs in America. He's also had several wives
during his many years in the spotlight. Here's the scoop on Bobby Flay's ex-wives and any
current women in his life.
After authoring approximately 15 cookbooks, appearing on more than 20 Food Network shows,
and owning numerous restaurant locations, it's safe to say that Bobby Flay is one of
the most well-known celebrity chefs around. Flay made his first appearance on the Food
Network in 1994, and since then he has regularly hosted programs including Worst Cooks in America
and Beat Bobby Flay, in which two chefs come on to win a chance to compete against Flay.
His professional life has been well documented through his appearances on the Food Network,
and his personal life has been of growing interest as well. Most recently, Flay publicly
dated actress Heléne Yorke from 2016 through 2019. Yorke is probably best-known for a recurring
role as Amy Breslin on The Good Fight and for her starring role as Brooke on Comedy
Central's The Other Two.
"And Brookie, my little dancing queen."
"I haven't danced in 12 years."
Prior to dating Yorke, Flay has been married three times, with his second marriage resulting
in one daughter, Sophie Flay. In addition to his marriages, Flay has been linked to
several women including Mad Men star January Jones and fellow chef Giada De Laurentiis.
As his career began to take off, Bobby Flay married fellow chef Debra Ponzek in 1991,
when he was 26. The couple got engaged over lunch at An American Place, a restaurant that
was located in the Murray Hill neighborhood of New York City, after just a few weeks of
meeting each other in 1990. Flay proposed to Ponzek with a pear-shaped diamond ring.
Ponzek was an engineering student at Boston University before dropping out to attend the
Culinary University of America. Flay studied at the French Culinary Institute in New York
City. The two chefs met when Bobby Flay was working at Miracle Grill in New York City's
East Village.
Their wedding and reception were held at the Rainbow Room in New York City. The reception
included a multi-course meal that was prepared by Andrew Wilkinson, who was the executive
chef at the Rainbow Room at the time.
"It's like you're in a time machine being taken back to, to another time. It's the best
room in New York City."
For dessert, the couple had a vanilla and blackberry wedding cake made by Sylvia Weinstock,
a New York City-based baker who has also made cakes for Donald Trump and Martha Stewart.
After two years of marriage, Bobby Flay and Debra Ponzek divorced in 1993. It didn't take
her long to find love again, as she married husband Greg Addonizio in April of 1994. The
couple first met in 1984 while attending culinary school together.
After graduating from culinary school, Addonizio worked at The Pear Tree in Rumson, New Jersey
before opening his own restaurant, The Miramar Beach Inn. That restaurant was located in
California, which became Addonizio's home for the next seven years. When Addonizio moved
back east, he saw his former classmate doing a cooking demonstration on a late-night TV
show and reconnected with her. Ponzek left New York when she married Addonizio and moved
north to Connecticut.
In 1995, she and her husband opened up Aux Delices, a restaurant, store and catering
company based in their new state. On the company's website, Ponzek wrote:
"After settling down with three kids in [Connecticut] [...] Our goal [for the company] became providing
delicious homemade food, made with healthy ingredients, that was easy to bring home to
your family."
They now have four locations throughout the state in Riverside, Greenwich, Darien, and
Westport.
Bobby Flay didn't stray too far when meeting his second wife, as they both were working
on shows for The Food Network when they met in 1994. Kate Connelly was working as a co-host
on Robin Leach Talking Food when she came across Flay, who appeared as a guest on the
show. Connelly, who was a single mother at the time with a son, went on her first date
with Flay at The Monkey Bar in New York City.
Flay said the fact that she was a single mother was one of the reasons that he was attracted
to her. They were engaged a few months after the first date, and married October 1, 1995,
at Flay's restaurant, Bolo.
On April 16, 1996, Flay became a father when his second wife, Kate Connelly, gave birth
to their daughter, Sophie. Sophie, now 25, works as a community journalist for ABC7 in
Los Angeles. For her work at ABC7, she's covered muralists honoring Kobe Bryant, Silver Lake
neighborhood council meetings, and community fridges offering free food to struggling neighbors
during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to her work for ABC7, Sophie Flay is a contributor to Localish, and co-hosts
the show The Flay List with her dad. As co-hosts of The Flay List, Sophie and her dad travel
around New York City looking for the best local meals.
"We just thought it would be kind of fun to do what we like to do most which is go and
eat, and um, and go to restaurants."
Sophie has also joined her dad on Beat Bobby Flay and Brunch at Bobby's.
Bobby Flay and Kate Connelly filed for divorce in 1998, just three years after marrying.
Two years later Flay met actress Stephanie March, who was starring on Law & Order: Special
Victims Unit at the time. March played Alexandra Cabot on the series, and appeared in more
than 90 episodes. She even starred in a spinoff series, Conviction.
Her acting career began in 1997 when she played Arlene in an episode of Early Edition, a TV
show that ran on CBS from 1996 until 2000. March's most recent movie role is Deb Green
in the TV movie A House on Fire, which was released in early 2021. March has appeared
in numerous movies and TV shows, although her most notable role to date was playing
Cabot in the Law & Order universe. She has also had minor roles in 30 Rock and Rescue
Me.
Unlike his first dates with his previous two wives, Bobby Flay and Stephanie March were
set up on a blind date in 2000. The couple had their first date at New York City's Nobu,
the famed sushi restaurant owned by Nobu Matsuhisa, a Japanese celebrity chef. They dated for
three years before Flay proposed in December 2003.
Flay popped the big question during the holiday season while ice skating at New York City's
Rockefeller Plaza, which coincidentally was where his first marriage to Ponzek was held.
He proposed to March with a princess-cut engagement ring. They were engaged for two years before
the couple finally tied the knot. Throughout their time together, March appeared on several
of Flay's Food Network shows, including eight appearances on Boy Meets Grill with Bobby
Flay, Bobby Flay Fit, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Iron Chef America: The Series.
After five years together, Bobby Flay and Stephanie March were married on February 20,
2005 at St. Peter's Episcopal in New York City by Rev. K Dennis Winslow. March, an alum
of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, kept her own last name throughout the marriage,
which lasted ten years before they filed for divorce in 2015.
The couple ended their marriage amid rumors that Flay, who was 50 at the time, was having
an affair with his assistant, Elyse Tirrell, who was 28 at the time. Tirrell worked at
one of Flay's restaurants, Bar Americain, before becoming the famous chef's assistant.
In response to the allegations, Flay's representative released a statement saying they would not
publicly respond to the alleged affair. March and Flay had a prenuptial agreement in which
Flay had to pay his ex-wife $5,000 a month.
After filing for divorce things turned ugly for Bobby Flay and ex-wife Stephanie March,
as personal details about their relationship and marriage began getting leaked to numerous
sources. One of the leaks alleged that when March had an emergency appendectomy in November
of 2013, Flay did not turn up to be at her side.
According to TMZ, March had the emergency surgery after her appendix burst, and Flay
didn't come to her bedside at the hospital until the day after her surgery. He also reportedly
left before she was discharged, saying he had to work and offering to send his assistant
to help his wife out as she recovered in the hospital.
That wasn't the only time that Flay wasn't there for March, as they spent their 10th,
and ultimately final, anniversary apart. On the day of the milestone event, Flay was attending
the Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival alongside fellow chefs
Giada De Laurentiis, Guy Fieri, and Duff Goldman. On February, 21, 2015, the day after the couple's
10-year anniversary, Flay hosted Bobby Flay's Caribbean Heat at the festival.
Following her emergency appendectomy in 2013, then a surgery to help her endometriosis one
month later, March went under the knife an additional time to have breast implants. The
surgery, which took place in August 2014, brought March to her knees, which she wrote
about in an essay for Refinery 29.
In the essay, March said that while she had no problems with plastic surgery, the decision
to get breast implants ultimately wasn't a good one for her. March noted that she only
had the surgery because she felt like her life was out of control. March wrote in the
essay:
"I was 39 years old, and my life was disintegrating. Couldn't get a job I wanted on camera, couldn't
get attention for my production projects, couldn't travel the world far enough or fast
enough or immerse myself in philanthropy enough to make it all go away."
She also attributed this feeling to her marriage with Flay falling apart, and having a difficult
time coping with that. March said that she changed her body because she could not change
anything else in her life, and that Flay was, quote, "bewildered" by her decision to have
the surgery. Two months after her breast augmentation, March found out that her right implant was
infected. She was on antibiotics for six weeks before having the implant re-implanted, but
then suffered another infection in December 2014, when she decided to have her implants
removed for good.
While her relationship with Bobby Flay ultimately didn't work out, Stephanie March didn't let
that stop her as she continued to search for love. She found it just two years after her
divorce when she married tech investor Dan Benton at the home that they share in Katonah,
New York. March was introduced to the investor a few months after her divorce from Flay,
and their first date was at the Orient Express, a bar in New York City's West Village. Benton,
who is 15 years March's senior, is the founder of Andor Capital, a hedge fund that shuttered
in 2016.
He proposed to the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit actress while they were vacationing together
in Greece. At the wedding, March wore a Dolce & Gabbana dress and borrowed her sister's
earrings. Her best friend played the Star Wars theme song on March's grandmother's piano
as she walked down the aisle, as both the bride and the groom are big fans of the franchise.
The wedding ceremony was followed by an outdoor luncheon at the home.
After Bobby Flay and ex-girlfriend Heléne Yorke split in 2019, the famous chef admitted
on his show Beat Bobby Flay that he's, quote, "very single," adding that Yorke, quote, "kicked
him to the curb." Flay made the revelations about his love life to actress Fran Drescher,
who was making a guest appearance on his show.
Flay fans were excitedly wondering if he had found a new love interest when he mentioned
the name "Christie" in an Instagram video he posted in December of 2019. However, it
turns out the Christie he referred to in the video is most likely his assistant, Christie
Bok, who began working for the culinary extraordinaire in 2018.
Before that, she had been employed by Mario Batali and had worked in the Delish test kitchen.
It was a bit difficult to meet new people in 2020, due to social distancing requirements,
and Flay has not been linked to anyone new since his breakup with Yorke.
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