It might be hard to think of celebrities as normal people with normal people problems.
But behind their camera-ready smiles and perfectly branded personas, lies the heartbreak and
the struggle that makes them human.
These are the tragic details that have come out about these famous celebrity chefs.
Gordon Ramsay might have a bit of a reputation as a tyrant in the kitchen, but outside, he's
a pretty decent guy.
He and his wife, Tana, do a ton of charity work, and are endlessly devoted to their family,
and beyond.
But the Ramsays have experienced their share of tragedy in recent years.
In 2016, Gordon posted a heartbreaking message on social media, announcing that his wife
had suffered a miscarriage at five months.
On a fortunate note, the family followed tragedy with some happy news, announcing, via USA
Today in 2019, that they were expecting again.
In April, they announced they had welcomed a healthy baby boy named Oscar, according
to People magazine.
But it appears Ramsay has always had a special place in his heart for the welfare of children.
"Yeah my childhood was tough.
My father was a severe alcoholic, and my mom worked as a cook, and a nurse at night.”
In 2007, he and Tana partnered with Women's Aid, a UK-based charity that helps women and
children who are the victims of domestic abuse.
Revealing his personal connection to the cause, Ramsay wrote for CNN,
"Growing up, my father was less than a perfect role model.
I watched how he battled alcoholism and how he became terribly violent with my mum, to
the point where she feared for her life.
[…] There were instances when the police were called to take him away; mum was taken
to the hospital while we kids were taken to a children's home."
He later told CNN's Talk Asia that growing up in such an abusive environment is the reason
for his hot temper, his rage, and his drive to succeed.
But he claims he has also broken the cycle.
"What's it like being the daughter to the best chef in the world?”
“But Jamie Oliver's not my dad!"
He says,
"I could never see myself behaving the way my father did when I was a child.
I want to be a role model for my children and have them look up to me."
"This is my Fieri fire roasted lasagna, I made a special edition of this for my sister
Morgan who was a vegetarian.”
Guy Fieri released his cookbook called Guy Fieri Food: Cookin' It, Livin' It, Lovin'
It in 2011.
The dedication was particularly personal to him, and he had originally written it to his
mother, father, and sister.
But his sister Morgan passed away from cancer just as the book was going to print, and Fieri
changed the dedication to be to her.
He told Travel, Food, and Drink,
"It gave me the biggest sigh of relief because what it does for me - and it does for my parents
and my nephew - is that my sister lives on forever.
My sister lives on in the book shelves and in the homes, with the families of people
forever."
"My most important tattoo is in memory of my sister Morgan.
Then on the bottom it says her name and it says namaste at the top.”
Morgan lost her battle with melanoma when she was 39.
According to Delish, she was first diagnosed when she was only 4 years old.
Fieri was only 8 at the time, and he remembers the family staying at the Ronald McDonald
House as she underwent treatment, saying,
"[…] We battled it for years as a family and it was just the most devastating thing
I had happen in my life."
Andrew Zimmern has been incredibly open about his struggles with alcoholism and drug addiction,
talking freely about how he turned to drugs when he was a teen and continued down that
path through his 20s.
At one point, he was homeless in Manhattan and stealing to pay for his drug habit - even
attempting to drink himself to death.
"Addiction and alcoholism is a progressive disease.
It does not get better, it only gets worse.”
He remembered the incident that initially set things in motion, telling People,
"When I was 13, I came back from summer camp - summer of '74 - and my mother had had an
accident during surgery.”
He said his mother had fallen into a coma, claiming,
"It was like the seminal event of my life."]
Success magazine reported Zimmern was 30 when friends handed him a one-way ticket to a rehab
center 1,200 miles away.
At the time, he said,
"I was a terrible alcoholic.
I was a heroin addict, I was an everything addict.
And for a long time, my addiction dominated my life."
He has since cleaned up, and has been sober for more than 25 years.
"I don't know that I've ever thought, oh I need to cook to make myself feel better, but
I certainly think cooking does make me feel better.”
Take Nigella Lawson at face value, and it's easy to assume she's culinary royalty.
But somewhere along the line, her life became the stuff of tabloid scandal: there were drugs,
abuse, a messy divorce, and court appearances, according to The New York Times.
In 2013, everything seemed to come to a head when the media published photos of her then-husband,
Charles Saatchi, grabbing her and seeming to choke her.
Then, it came out that abuse had first come at the hands of Nigella's mother, Vanessa
Salmon.
Lawson said via the Irish Independent,
"[My mother] just didn't like me.
I never thought I could please her.
[…] She'd shout at all of us and say, 'I'm going to hit you till you cry,' and so I never
would cry.
I still don't."
In the end, Salmon was diagnosed with cancer - and told her daughter she was relieved,
because with her death would come peace.
"It's very good to remember whether it's a child, a husband, a wife, an aunt, somebody
dear to you, it's to suddenly bring it back and think we were lucky to have them.”
Mary Berry is a huge part of the success of The Great British Bake Off, but her life hasn't
been all crumpets and perfect sponge.
In the BBC2's The Mary Berry Story, she opened up about the day she received the news that
every parent dreads.
It was 1989, and her son, William, was just 19 years old.
He was home from university for the weekend, and she remembered that she had made his favorite
for dinner - roast lamb.
The next day, he took his parents' car and went for a drive.
She recalled,
"And it was […] one o'clock and he wasn't home.
The doorbell rang and there was a policeman [who] said there's been an accident and I'm
sorry to say your son is dead."
"Oh you see William's got lots of snowdrops around here.”
In 2018, Berry was still helping others grieving the loss of their children, according to Woman
& Home.
As the patron of Child Bereavement UK, Berry participated in a campaign that asked parents
what they would say to their child if they just had one more minute.
She said,
"I would thank him.
I would thank him for being a brilliant son."
When The Wall Street Journal talked to Alton Brown about his childhood, he remembered growing
up with his father, Alton Sr., who was an account executive at NBC.
"This is a 1964 Kinner Easy Bake Oven.
When I was a really little kid I wanted one of these.
My parents wouldn't let me have one.”
But after buying a radio station and moving to Georgia, in 1972, Alton Sr. was found dead,
sitting at his desk with a plastic bag taped over his head.
Alton had just finished the sixth grade.
According to The New York Times, officials ruled that Alton Sr. had taken his own life.
But Brown believes his father may have been murdered.
He wrote,
"In addition to owning the radio station, he owned a small newspaper in the next county
and wound up pissing off the wrong people.
[…] It was a horrible shock for me and my mom, who had been the editor of the paper
and now had the burden of figuring out how to make ends meet in a small town."
In 2013, 10 years had passed since Giada De Laurentiis lost her younger brother, Dino,
to skin cancer.
"When he was diagnosed with melanoma, we were in shock."
She marked the anniversary by partnering with The Melanoma Research Alliance and recording
a PSA for Stand Up to Cancer.
The loss was devastating to her.
She said,
"Really, we felt like he was my older brother.
He was the person I turned to for everything.
When something great happened in my life, when something bad happened - I would talk
to him 2 to 3 times per day."
She elaborated on the impact Dino's death has had on her life, telling The Cut,
"I realized that life is fleeting and it can be taken away at any time.
I feel like I only have a limited amount of time on this planet.
I have to get as much done as possible.”
Everyone remembers where they were when they heard about the attacks on the World Trade
Center.
But Michael Lomonaco knows that he should have been at the restaurant where he worked
as executive chef, Windows on the World, in the North Tower.
He would have been there, too, he told Reuters, if he hadn't taken a pre-work detour to order
new reading glasses on that fateful day.
Instead of making a left to go to the elevators, I made a right and I went into the concourse,
and I went to an optometrist shop, and I was being fitted for reading glasses."
Seventy-nine of his fellow employees were already at work when the attack happened,
and every single one was lost in the devastation that followed.
According to The New Yorker, Lomonaco embarked on a mission to not only raise money for their
families - which he did, collecting $22 million in donations - but to continue doing what
they had all loved.
He told the outlet,
"I said to myself on September 12th that I will continue to work in the restaurant business
in New York because that's what I want to do and what my friends want me to do.
It's really a tribute to my colleagues, my co-workers, my friends whom I lost that day."
"This is the work they were doing when they lost their lives.
And this is the work that I am fortunate enough to be able to do.
And I dedicate my work life to them.”
The world was shocked when news broke that Anthony Bourdain had taken his own life, in
2018.
But in hindsight, some began to realize that he had often talked about how unhappy he was,
with many pointing to the Buenos Aires episode of Parts Unknown.
It was heavy stuff, and when it aired, Eater even ran a piece asking if we needed to worry.
Bourdain spoke often about depression, saying,
"Suddenly I look at the hamburger and I find myself in a spiral of depression that can
last for days."
He also revealed how a certain philosophy on humanity - and consequently, his job - impacted
him, recalling,
"George Orwell said something that really upset me.
He talked about how human beings are essentially tubes into which we shove food."
He then added,
"And this is my job.
I travel around the world, and for a certain period of time, my job is to shove food into
my face."
Doctor John E. Richters compiled an even more disturbing collection of quotes, and found
that on at least 19 separate occasions, Bourdain made comments about the act of taking his
own life - in the way that he eventually would.
One quote from an episode of No Reservations was particularly chilling in hindsight, when
he said,
"Oh boy, just saved from a poisonous blowhole-inspired bout of depression and self-loathing by the
healing powers of pork."
And in a since-deleted follow up thought, he said,
"I determine not to hang myself in the shower stall of my lonely hotel room."
If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call or chat online with
the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8225).