Ever since marrying in 2005, Rachael Ray has shared details about her marriage with husband
John Cusimano with fans, while he's kept a relatively low profile.
Here is what most people don't know about Rachael Ray's husband.
John Cusimano has become a regular fixture on the Rachael Ray show. Despite his relaxed
on-air demeanor, however, Cusimano's background isn't in broadcasting. That said, he does have
a very Hollywood day job. As Cusimano revealed during a Q&A session on the show in July 2020,
"I used to practice in New York City as an entertainment lawyer,
primarily in film. Then I met this one, and now I only have one client
and her name is Rachael Ray. So I just work on our businesses all the time."
Beaming at her hubby, Ray added that Cusimano specializes in entertainment licensing and joked,
"Smartest thing I ever did was marry an entertainment lawyer."
Speaking with Us Weekly the following month, the famed TV chef elaborated that,
"John focuses on the business dealings and all of
the different facets of our brand while I make TV shows in the studio all day."
John Cusimano and Rachael Ray are adamant that they experienced love at first sight,
but their initial encounter back in 2001 wasn't perfect. Ray confessed to People,
"[I was] at a point in my life when I had decided, I'm not going to chase [marriage]."
Recalling the unusual circumstance that first got them talking, Ray later told People,
"We were at a party with a lot of really tall [people] and we
are both so short. We saw each other right away."
"As you can see we're not all that tall. So I like to say we saw each other among a sea of knees."
As Ray revealed to Steve Harvey in 2014, she and Cusimano walked across the room
to each other. In order to break the ice, the celeb chef asked if Cusimano
had a go-to dish — and his answer threw her off. Cusimano told People,
"I said, 'Yeah, I made this talapia with a tomatillo -jalapeno-cilantra reduction with
a little bit of Negro Modelo beer with a maque choux on the side. And she said, 'Are you gay?'"
Ray confessed to the same outlet in 2018,
"I assumed that if you're not a chef and you made what he told me he made,
that he was gay. So I was going to set him up with a friend of
mine — another handsome Italian man — and he said, 'Oh, I'm not gay!'"
After that first awkward meeting, Ray and Cusimano stayed out until 4 in the morning,
with Ray adding, quote, "That really was our first date."
"And we have talked every day since the night we met."
As Rachael Ray revealed to her viewers during a 2020 Q&A session on her show,
John Cusimano went to law school because his parents wanted him to. However, his real passion
is music. In speaking about her husband's love for music, Ray gushed to her audience,
"He wanted to go to Berklee College of Music and was accepted and he's a terrific
musician and he plays 57 different instruments. He really is a master
of keyboards, every stringed instrument, he's especially great with percussion."
Although he may not have pursued music professionally, Cusimano plays and records
with independent rock band The Cringe. The band released its sixth studio album,
Everywhere You've Never Been, in 2019 and has toured with Mötley Crüe, Alice Cooper, Tesla,
and Ratt. In 2012, The Cringe actually performed on Rachael Ray. And, as John told viewers during
that same 2020 Q&A session, the pandemic slowed the band down, but didn't stop them:
"My band and I do record songs remotely and do videos [...] We
used to tour quite a bit [...] I want to get back out there."
Music is also something that helped the couple bond. As Ray told Forbes in 2013,
"My husband and I are big music junkies and we have an enormous vinyl collection with around
1,500 to 2,000 records. That's probably our favorite family pastime: to listen to music."
She also joked on her show,
"I didn't legitimately seal that deal until I heard his music."
Just like his famous wife, John Cusimano likes to wear many hats. In addition to being a lawyer
and passionate musician, Cusimano's IMDb page reveals he has two acting credits to
his name — in 1982's World War Mud and in 2017's TV series, Crashing. Cusimano also
has an associate producer credit on the 1996 TV show Rurouni Kenshin : Wandering Samurai.
What's more, the multi-talented Cusimano is quite the master mixologist. He has regularly shared
cocktail recipes on Rachael Ray, including for his Negroni , Rosé Champagne Spritzer, and Lost In The
Woods cocktails. When his chef wife decided to publish My Year in Meals and My Year in Cocktails
back in 2012, she enlisted his help for the drinks section. As the book's official snippet reads:
"[W]hether shaken or stirred, straight up or on the rocks, with a cherry or a twist,
John's creations — like his Strawberry Velvet featuring honey liqueur , strawberries,
and lime — are always fresh, fun, and certain to make any gathering more memorable."
It may sound odd, but as Rachael Ray told ABC News in 2006,
John Cusimano is practically the only guy she could have married because he has no
problem being ignored. She shared a similar sentiment with People in 2007, admitting,
"I can't give a man an enormous amount of attention. And John is totally down with that.
When men I have dated over the years whined about, 'Oh, you make no time for
me' — see ya! I just dumped them. [...] I don't need that pressure in my life."
Sharing just how busy a typical day can be for her, Ray told Forbes in 2010 that she likes to
start her mornings with a workout. After her workout, Ray heads to her studio and
usually doesn't see her husband till late in the evening. Ray went on to tell the outlet,
"I get home from taping between 6:30 and 8. I cook dinner every night,
and my husband and I eat between 8 and 10 o'clock [...] John, God bless him, does the dishes."
Just one year after Rachael Ray and John Cusimano said "I do," the National Enquirer
published a November 2006 cover story claiming that the celeb chef was suffering a "secret pain"
because her husband was caught cheating in their New York City apartment. According to the tabloid,
Cusimano allegedly began a relationship with a Florida woman in 2000 and continued it after
marrying Ray in 2005. When People asked Ray about the rumors in 2007, she replied,
"I've known where he is every night since we've been married."
Jump to 2013 and the National Enquirer was reporting on Cusimano's alleged infidelity
yet again, this time citing a source who claimed he was a regular at Checkmate,
which calls itself "NYC's best private adult membership swingers club." The outlet also
alleged that Cusimano had brought at least one unidentified female with him each time he visited
the club. A spokesperson for the couple was quick to shut down the rumors, telling the Daily News,
"This is yet another pack of lies printed by the National Enquirer
who have been targeting John and Rachael for years without any merit whatsoever."
The spokesperson added: "John's lawyers [...] are
exploring legal action against the publication for defamation."
Rachael Ray and John Cusimano love spoiling each other. As the celeb chef told People in 2018,
they take romance very seriously and have a decade-long Valentine's Day tradition, in
which he makes her a playlist. Meanwhile, Rachael cooks John's favorite meal for Valentine's Day,
pasta carbonara , and gives him various salamis from around the world, seeing as he loves pork.
Ray's gestures of love also go well beyond Valentine's Day.
When Cusimano came home grumpy from a bad round of golf in August 2020,
she decided to cheer him up by lighting a nice fire and making him pasta.
"I love golfing. I love snowboarding."
"He's terrible at golf."
Sadly, the sweet gesture went horribly wrong. Just as they were getting ready to eat,
they heard someone screaming that their roof was on fire.
The next thing Ray and Cusimano knew, their house was gone. Ray told her viewers,
Turns out the couple's scary house fire started in the chimney. Ray went on to tell her viewers:
"It was creosote that spit out the top and landed on the roof."
After the fire, the outer walls of Ray's house were still standing. But because of
the extensive fire damage, the chef admitted that her entire house had to be bulldozed.
In addition to being an entertainment lawyer by trade and dabbling in music, mixology,
and even acting and producing, John Cusimano took on yet another role when the pandemic lockdown
began in the U.S. in March 2020: cameraman. As he and his wife started shooting the Rachael Ray
show at their home, Cusimano was forced to, quote, "take on a million roles," according
to Ray. She added that John had become the show's cameraman and tech services.
Of course, Cusimano has also spent his share of time in front of the camera. But
aside from all of that, as Vanity Fair reported in 2007,
he's in charge of running the Rachael Ray brand's parent company,
Watch Entertainment. According to Crunchbase, the multi-talent Cusimano oversees the growth
of the brand with Vanity Fair noting that he's in charge of negotiating and managing all deals.
All of this work has garnered Cusimano his own impressive fortune, which clocks in at
an estimated $10 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Although it's only a fraction of his
celebrity chef wife's whopping $100 million net worth, it's certainly nothing to scoff at!
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