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Here’s when Does ‘The Price Is Right’ Season 54 RETURN With New Episodes.

Sonja Flemming / CBS

The Price Is Right aired a special July 4 episode dedicated to first responders to the California wildfires of 2025. That was the last episode for a while from the beloved game show, which is also daytime TV’s top-rated daytime series. So, when will one of audience’s favorite games return with new episodes?

It was a milestone year for the hit series as it celebrated the 10,000th episode of The Price Is Right on February 26, 2025, on CBS. It was part of The Price Is Right Season 53, which premiered on September 23, 2024, and continued through June 27, with the July 4 bonus episode tacked onto the end of the season last week. The show is now on a summer vacation, but it will come back later this year.

When does The Price Is Right return?

The Price Is Right Season 54 will likely premiere in September 2025, with The Price Is Right at Night slated to air on Wednesdays at 9/8c starting in January 2026 (see the CBS fall 2025 schedule here).

An exact premiere date will be announced at a later time, but the game show has premiered at the end of September for several years in a row now. Given that episodes air daily on CBS, expect a Monday premiere date for its return. We’d predict that Season 54 will kick off on either Monday, September 22, or Monday, September 29. It will likely air in its usual time slot of 11a/10c on weekday mornings.

Where can I watch episodes of The Price Is Right?

While you wait for the return, past episodes of The Price Is Right — including installments from Season 53 — can be streamed on Paramount+. There are always Price Is Right reruns airing somewhere on TV throughout the year, so Drew Carey and late former host Bob Barker are never too far.

The Price Is Right, Season 54, Fall 2025, CBS

‘Price is Right’ host Drew Carey Stunned as Elderly Contestant’s Daring Move Leaves Even the Richest Shocked.

Drew Carey with the contestants after their big win (Cover image source: YouTube | Price is Right)

Winning big on “The Price is Right” requires a lot of skills and knowledge about the prices of everyday items and luxury goods, apart from luck. But some contestants are known to surprise everyone by pulling off a win based largely on luck. People who do manage to bag a big prize in such fashion don’t hold back their emotions and can go overboard with celebrations. That was on display when two contestants playing together won a lot of prize money in what some fans believe to be one of the toughest games on the show. To celebrate, one of them ran around the stage, and the other broke down in tears, as Drew Carey himself was left shaking.

The contestants were two women named Jackie and Connie, and they were playing ‘Hot Seat.’ The contestants had to sit on a chair, and they had five tables with five items in front of them. An incorrect price of each item was displayed, and they had to guess whether the correct price was higher or lower. Getting one price right gives $2,500, two gives $5,000, three gives $10,000, four gives $20,000, and all five correct guesses will get them $50,000. However, the contestants had the choice to opt out of the game if they did not feel confident after winning a certain amount of money.
Screenshot showing Drew Carey explaining the game to the contestants. (Image source: YouTube | Triniswagg92 Beastmode)
The first item in front of Connie and Jackie was a set of bar tools priced at $19. They guessed the real price to be higher. Next up was a hairstyle worth $200, which the contestants guessed was higher than the real price. Next up was a jewelry box worth $75, and the contestant said that the right price was more than that. Next was a karaoke machine worth $150, and the players believed the correct price to be lower.

The final item was a neck massager priced at $49, which they guessed was lower than the actual price. Once all that was done, it was time to reveal the results. Both Connie and Jackie had their hearts in their mouths throughout the whole process. One by one, they got the prices of the items correct, and in the end, it was down to the jewelry box.

 
Screenshots showing the contestants on “The Price is Right.” (Image source: YouTube | Triniswagg92 Beastmode)
Jackie could not even watch as she hugged Connie and looked away. By this point, they had won $20,000 but would lose everything if they got it wrong. However, the correct answer would win $50,000. When that happened, Jackie could not sit down anymore and ran around in celebration while Connie wiped several tears off her face. “What a chance they took,” Carey said. “I’m shaking right now.”

“Hot Seat is a tough game. Thank God they won!” one fan commented under the clip on YouTube. “The first hot winner on The Price is Right since hot seat first debuted on the price is right,” added another.

Beyond Comfort: Watch the Moment a Contestant’s Tears Overwhelmed the Stage, Even With the Host and Model’s Best Efforts

‘Price is Right’ player breaks down in tears after winning $100,000 in incredible TV moment

Screenshots showing the contestant on “The Price is Right” (Cover image source: YouTube | Triniswagg92 Beastmode)

Since “The Price Is Right” has been popular for decades, it’s a dream come true for generations to compete on the show and win big. This is why the reactions could be over-the-top and even emotional in some cases. In an episode of the show, a contestant played the perfect game to win a six-figure sum and broke down. He was in disbelief that he was even on the stage, so it’s understandable how big a deal winning that kind of money must have been. On the other hand, host Drew Carey had a big smile on his face all throughout.

The contestant named Ryan won some money right off the bat. He guessed the exact price of an item on Contestant’s Row and won $500. He then had the chance to win a lot more as he would play the Grand Game for a chance to win $100,000. The rules of the game were simple, despite the gigantic prop brought out to introduce it.

The contestant gets to see six items, four of which are worth less than $10, and the player has to guess those four items to win $100,000. Now, the contestant had already been given $10 by the machine. For each product he got right, the machine would add one zero to the prize money. However, if the contestant gave the wrong answer, he’d lose all the money. Announcer George Gray then revealed the six items.
Screenshot showing Drew Carey explaining the game to the contestant. (Image source: YouTube | Triniswagg92 Beastmode)
These items were a scent booster, a protein energy bar, a jar of pickled onions, a bottle of moisturizer, a box of strawberry drink mix, and a jar of ice cream. The contestant first chose the drink mix, and that was correct. His prize money went up to $100. Next, Ryan chose the ice cream, and his prize money went up to a thousand bucks. The contestant still could not believe that he was on the show even now.

He then chose the protein bar, and that was correct as well. This got his prize money up to $10,000. This was the final stage, and if he got it right, he could’ve won $100,000; otherwise, he could’ve gone home with nothing. Carey explained to the contestant that he could leave the game with ten grand, but the contestant wanted to go for it. Egged on by the crowd, he picked the pickled onions, which drew a huge cheer.
Screenshot showing the audience on “The Price is Right.” (Image source: YouTube | Triniswagg92 Beastmode)
That was the final item worth less than $10, meaning Ryan had won $100,000. He had seemed like he was on the verge of crying for quite a while. After winning such a big sum of money, nobody could stop the waterworks. The contestant fell to the floor in tears, in disbelief that he had played a perfect game to win one of the biggest prizes one could win on the show.

Fans of the show loved the moment and made their thoughts clear in the comments section on YouTube. “What a Great Way to start off the 10,000th Show with a $100,000 Winner! He certainly deserved it,” one user commented. “He had a great bid to get on stage 😂,” another added. “I thought he was gonna lose after he picked the ice cream..🫢,” one more fan said.

“The Price is Right” contestants are known to go a bit too far with their celebrations, and Drew Carey often bears the brunt when things get out of control. Now, a contestant is jumping on Drew Carey and putting him in a headlock in wild TV moment.

The contestant hugging Carey and the model James O’Halloran (Cover image source: YouTube | CBS)

“The Price is Right” contestants are known to go a bit too far with their celebrations, and Drew Carey often bears the brunt when things get out of control. The host has been knocked down on a number of occasions, and fans have even expressed concern about Carey getting seriously hurt by such antics. He has also been spun around and tackled by contestants. On a more recent episode of the show, the host had a similar experience.

It happened when a player named Alexander ran to the stage after clearing the contestants’ row and jumped on Carey. He hugged the host and had him in a headlock, according to a report in The Express. The contestant then went on to play Side by Side and win a trip to Alaska, which is when he jumped on the host again. He then went on to hug the model James O’Halloran. This is when Carey told him not to go to Alaska, and Alexander hugged him for a third time.

But the player wasn’t able to match all that excitement with his performance, as he failed to enter the Showcase round after spinning the wheel.

The same happened when a contestant named Ethan had won his way to the stage to play for a brand-new Dodge Hornet. The game was ‘One Away’, the rules of which are simple. The contestant gets to see a five-figure number. Each digit is one away (either one more or one less) from the corresponding digit in the price of the car. If the contestant guesses the price of the car correctly, they win it.

This time, however, the showrunners decided to add a twist. ‘One Away’ isn’t a game that a lot of contestants win on their first try. It has only happened on a select few episodes. Carey told Ethan that if he could correctly guess the price of the car on his first attempt, he’d win the cash equivalent of the price of the car along with the car itself. One by one, Ethan got more and more digits right in his price.
Screenshot showing the contestant and Drew Carey on “The Price is Right.” (Image source: YouTube | Triniswagg92 Beastmode)
Eventually, he reached the end of the round. When he asked if he had all five digits correct at 35270, Ethan was down on his knees with Carey. The sound of the horn indicated that the contestant was correct, and Ethan went crazy with excitement. He first lay on the floor before picking up Carey and giving him a strong spin.

Since he got it right on his first attempt, he won $35,270 as well. Model Alexis Gaube was standing next to the car as cash started falling from the rafters. Gaube even threw some cash from the trunk of the car as Ethan went to hug and celebrate his win with her.

Fans of the show absolutely loved the segment and made their thoughts known in the comments section of the clip on YouTube. “He played that perfectly! Not only he won himself an SUV, he also won the cash equivalent of $35,270! Best Highlight of the show,” one user commented.

‘The Price Is Right’ Viewers Shocked Due to Contestant’s Move. Show bosses give an update after fans expressed their concern.

‘The Price Is Right’ Viewers Shocked as Contestant Suddenly Quits Show

The Price Is Right fans were left scratching their heads on June 26 when a contestant left the show partway through. Kathy Young lost out on a car and then disappeared, which caused host Drew Carey to explain her absence.

Young won the third item up for bid, which was workout equipment, costing $749, on the penultimate episode of the season. She bid $625 and got to come to the stage to play Gridlock. Young screamed and then calmly walked to the stage to meet Drew Carey.

The game show contestant thanked the show when they told her she had the chance to win a 2025 Toyota Corolla LE. In Gridlock, The Price Is Right contestant has to correctly guess the price of the car in order to win it. The first number is given, and then they have to pick one blue car and one orange car, which both have two numbers on it. They are the next four numbers in the car. If the numbers are right, they get to take the car home.

Young was given two as the first number. She then turned to the audience for advice on the second. Young picked 41 as the second set. She was right and moved on to the last set of numbers. For the last two numbers, Young picked 20.

This made the price of the car $24,120. Young was wrong, but got one more chance to correct herself. Between 57 and 95, Young chose 95, making the vehicle $24,195. She was wrong, so she did not win the $24,157 car.

Carey said that she was going to spin the wheel when the game show came back from commercial, but she wasn’t there when it returned. “We only have two players for the Showcase Showdown because contestant Kathy had an emergency and she was unable to continue,” the host shared. “She’s not going to be able to continue. We’re going to have two spinners. Good luck to them.”

As Brigit spun the wheel, Carey said, “We hope Kathy is ok!”

Brigit went over, and Tawab wound up winning the Showdown.

At the end of the Showcase, the host said again, “Sending our best to Kathy. We hope she’s ok!” During the closing credits, the following update appeared: “A contestant on this episode could not continue, but will be receiving their prizes.”

“I’ve never in the history of watching this show seen 2 contestants at the wheel. I hope it was just an upset stomach or something,” a Reddit user said.

“That was a first,” said another.

“I hope she’s ok. Unless it was an extreme situation, they could have just brought the wheel out and did the first showcase showdown like they did under the old taping format,” added a third.

“Yeah, I never heard of this before either. hope whatever happened was mild and Kathy’s okay and well,” wrote another.

The Price Is Right released a statement to TV Insider about Young. They didn’t reveal what happened to the contestant, but are inviting her back.

“Due to unforeseen circumstances, one of our contestants was unfortunately unable to complete her time on a recent episode of The Price Is Right. We are pleased to share that Kathy has been invited to return as our special member of our audience for a future show taping. We look forward to the opportunity to welcome her back and extend our sincere thanks to Kathy —and to all of our loyal viewers—for being such an incredible part of our television family.

-The Price Is Right Production.”

Young will have to return for an episode on Season 54 as Season 53 wrapped up on Friday, June 27.

The Price Is Right, Season 54, returns this fall, CBS

‘Matlock’ Kathy Bates Makes Shocking Admission That Leaves Fans Stunned – She is sharing a major Matlock revelation.

‘Matlock’ fans weren’t expecting that one.

Kathy Bates is sharing a major Matlock revelation.

The 76-year-old acting icon, who stars in CBS’ Matlock reboot, confessed in a new interview that she didn’t watch the original series during the ’80s and ’90s, which starred Andy Griffith as the titular character.

“I didn’t watch it. Everybody always asked me that—did I watch the show?” Bates explained during her interview with Billy Bob Thornton as part of Variety‘s “Actors on Actor’s” series.

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“I watched a couple [of episodes] to see what I could get out of it, but our show is just so different,” Bates explained.

The Oscar-winning actress did note, however, that the reboot series was initially meant to have much stronger ties to the original.

 

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“I heard, originally, they wanted to make [my character] Andy Griffith’s great-great-granddaughter. So she’d be 30-something,” Bates revealed.

Ultimately, the reboot’s creator Jennie Snyder Urman began brainstorming and eventually, “it came to her that she wanted to write something about older women [and] feeling invisible.”

As a result, the new Matlock series was born—and Bates’ fans are eternally grateful.

“She’s the light of the show! 💝” one of her fans wrote on Instagram, while another called Bates simply “brilliant” in the hit show.

“Excellent show. She’s an icon,” added another.

Matlock Boss Teases ‘Drama’ and ‘Trauma’ in Season 2 After Finale Twists (Exclusive)

Executive producer Jennie Urman Snyder teases the “delicious dilemma” that will be at the heart of season 2

From left: Kathy Bates and Skye P. Marshall on ‘Matlock’. Credit :Robert Voets/CBS

WARNING: This article contains spoilers from the season 1 finale of Matlock.

The case is closed on Matlock season 1, but the finale had no shortage of jaw-dropping cliffhangers to leave viewers counting down the days until Season 2.

In the aftermath of not one, not two, but three major twists, Matlock executive producer Jennie Urman Snyder gave PEOPLE the scoop on the finale’s biggest moments and teased what’s ahead for Matty (Kathy Bates) and the rest of the show’s characters in season 2. And Snyder makes it clear there’s lots more drama to come.

From left: Kathy Bates, David Del Rio, Leah Lewis and Skye P. Marshall on ‘Matlock’.Sonja Flemming/CBS

While the episode centered on Sarah (Leah Lewis) trying (and winning!) her first solo case, her coworkers were all dealing with personal dilemmas of their own. Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) was forced to face the fact that Matty was right about Julian (Jason Ritter) stealing the missing Welbrexa documents. In turn, Julian begged his ex to destroy the incriminating papers for the sake of their family.

Meanwhile, Billy (David Del Rio) received life-changing news from his former fiancée, Claudia (Bella Ortiz), who showed up at Jacobson Moore to tell the newly-single lawyer that she’s pregnant following their hookup. However, it was Matty who faced the most earth-shattering revelation when Joey (Niko Nicotera), the presumed father of her grandson Alfie (Aaron Harris), arrived on her doorstep looking for his son.

Thankfully, Snyder, 49, was willing to break down those cliffhangers and more in a post-finale chat with PEOPLE.

PEOPLE: Let’s start with the biggest reveal. Julian is the one who hid the Welbrexa documents. At what point did you decide it was going to be him?

Jennie Snyder Urman: You know, we debated a lot at the beginning of the season in the writers room, back and forth, but I think we clamped down on that pretty early because we had to construct all the clues to lead to it.

Jason Ritter and Skye P. Marshall were so good in the scene where Olympia finds out…

I can’t even! We were all dying to see him. We knew he was going to just crush it and he came to the table read with that scene all ready. His performance in the show is what he did at the table read.

And we were just like, “Holy s—, it worked.” He gave such depth and you feel so bad for Julian. He is fighting for his life and that was the hope that in this ending moment, you would be like, “Oh no, he did it.” But then feel for him, you know, have that empathy, and that’s why it was him and not Senior, because we care more about him in the scheme of our show. He’s Olympia’s ex-husband and they share kids together and he is not a bad person. He just broke my heart in that scene and so did she.

From left: Jason Ritter and Skye P. Marshall on ‘Matlock’.Robert Voets/CBS

It tears your heart out because you do feel for him, but it puts this whole other dynamic on Olympia’s situation. What is she thinking now?

She is all about justice, but what happens when it’s your family? Then what do you do? That’s number one. Number two, she’s been like, “Matty, you’re crazy, he would never have done that, let me prove this.” She believed so deeply that it would not be true and then she feels foolish. Now, she has just all the weight. What is the right thing to do on a macro scale and then on the micro in terms of her family, and are those the same things?

She knows whichever way she goes, someone’s going to get hurt. Also, there’s this terrible thing that has caused Matty so much pain that he did, and she’s so mad that he did it. Her greatest fear about him is that he is a good person until there’s pressure put on him and then he does the easier thing and now she has to clean it up.

It’s just as bad as it gets, because you felt like the hope of a friendship could come for Olympia and Matty, and then Olympia gets this information and in some ways it makes their friendship more possible, because she knows Matty was right, but to have that happen would be at the expense of her family and it’s a terrible, but delicious dilemma for season 2.

Is there a scenario where Julian can take responsibility for his actions and find a way to work with Matty and Olympia?

I think certainly that’s going to be something that Olympia is going to be contemplating, right? Is there a version where she can talk Matty into saving Julian and going after Senior? But in order to do that she would have to be pulling Matty in… and there’s just a lot at stake once she shows that document.

It’s just a very precarious position and what Matty thought she was up for changes because of that last shot in the show of Joey showing up. Before that happened, she was like, “Yeah, Olympia don’t worry, we’ll look for the truth, so I’ll help you on your journey to get Senior.” Then Joey came to the house and this guy is saying that he might be her grandchild’s father and her whole world is upside down and everything looks different.

It’s just a new world order that Olympia has to contend with when she gets to see Matty next.

Aaron D. Harris in ‘Matlock’.Robert Voets/CBS

For Matty, she’s hit with this huge bombshell when Alfie’s dad shows up on the doorstep. How big of a threat is he going to be to her family unit? 

The biggest earthquake certainly in her life that she could imagine is that he comes back. He destabilizes everything. The one firm ground she has is this home relationship and it’s the one relationship that hasn’t been tested or tried is her and Alfie’s.

They have been growing in the same direction, they’ve been co-conspirators and they’ve been each other’s best friends. And if this person comes in and it’s his father, what does that do? And who is he? And what dynamic is he going to bring in? Suddenly, a lot of things at home are out of control and that’s really scary for Matty. It is hard to keep all of the balls in the air, this is a big destabilizing force.

Skye P. Marshall on ‘Matlock’.Robert Voets/CBS

Matty and Olympia’s partnership is so much at the heart of the show. Now that Olympia knows about Julian’s involvement, is there still a way forward for her and Matty?

I mean, they forged a beautiful relationship when Matty was holding a giant secret over Olympia’s head, right? So potentially, Olympia thinks maybe I could keep this [secret]. You know their relationship is really what’s at stake in the next season.

It’s always my favorite part of the show is this relationship and this love story and like all big, epic love stories it’s going to be tried and tested and they’re going to be apart and then together and that is how we build the show. We build it around that spine of that friendship.

Let’s pivot to Billy. What was the thinking with that bombshell that he’s going to be a dad just as he’s planning on enjoying being single?

I think it’s exactly as you said, you finally come to the point when he’s happy to be single and then how can we complicate his life the most in the biggest way that will bring us a lot of drama, but that also could happen and it feels real and sort of puts him in a totally different place than he was in season 1. It really opens up all sorts of [questions]: first of all, is Claudia gonna have the baby? Is she not? It just opens up a lot of avenues for drama, and I would say trauma, for Billy, and for ways for Sarah to show up for him, ways for other characters to unexpectedly show up for him. He’s got a fun storyline this year.

Was it always the plan to end season 1 with Matty’s identity under wraps for everyone except Olympia?

Yes, that was always the plan. The Matty Matlock persona is still front and center in the law firm, I will say, for a bunch of reasons. There are surprising developments about who gets read into the truth and when.

Is there anything else you’d like to tease or just discuss? Season 1 has been such a journey. 

I just want to thank people for giving us the chance and going on this road with us, and I hope this ending is satisfying but also it really makes you realize how much more story we have to tell in the second season.

All episodes of Matlock season 1 are streaming now on Paramount+.

Here’s When ‘Matlock’ Is Back With Season 2: Everything We Know so Far.

Sonja Flemming / CBS

Matlock was one of the hit new shows of 2024. Case in point: It scored the first series renewal of the season after just two episodes aired this past fall. The Kathy Bates-led legal drama delivered its biggest bombshells of the season in its two-hour Season 1 finale on Thursday, April 17, on CBS. And it won’t be a long wait for Season 2 now that CBS has confirmed its 2025-2026 schedule.

Inspired by the Andy Griffith series of the same name but not a direct remake, Matlock stars Bates as Madeline “Matty” Matlock, a brilliant septuagenarian who achieved success in her younger years and decides to rejoin the workforce at a prestigious law firm where she uses her unassuming demeanor and wily tactics to win cases. Matty is assigned to Olympia (Skye P. Marshall), a senior attorney and key rainmaker with a thirst for justice, Olympia’s ex-husband, Julian (Jason Ritter), the son of the head of the firm, is intrigued by Matty and her clever skills. As Matty endeavors to establish herself in her new high-stakes world, she works alongside the firm’s younger associates — the charismatic Billy (David Del Rio) and the uber-ambitious Sarah (Leah Lewis).

The first episode revealed the show’s major twist: Matty is actually working undercover to uncover documents she believes were immorally buried by a lawyer at Jacobson Moore in order to keep opioids on the market. She’s fighting to avenge her daughter, who died of an opioid overdose. Matty tried to find out who buried the Wellbrexa documents all season long with her partners in crime, husband Edwin (Sam Anderson) and grandson Alfie (Aaron D. Harris). The Season 1 finale revealed the culprit while setting up new mysteries. As showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman previously told TV Insider, “You get the answer to that central question, and then, we push forward into the next season.”

Here’s everything there is to know so far about Matlock‘s future.

When does Matlock Season 2 premiere?

Matlock Season 2 will premiere this fall on CBS, per the Fall 2025 calendar. It will air on Thursdays at 9/8c just like Season 1. An exact premiere date will be announced at a later time.

How many episodes are in Matlock Season 2?

Season 1 had 18 episodes, so while it’s not confirmed at the time of publication, it’s likely that Season 2 will follow suit with 18 episodes.

Who is in the Matlock Season 2 cast?

Matlock recurring and guest stars throughout Season 1 included Beau Bridges, Eme Ikwuakor, Yael Grobglas, and more. The creator of Jane the Virgin, Jennie Snyder Urman, serves as showrunner. An official Season 2 cast list has not been announced, but expect Bates and Marshall to return alongside Anderson, Harris, Ritter, Lewis, and Del Rio. Niko Nicotera appeared as a man claiming to be Alfie’s father in the finale’s final seconds. He’s expected to return in Season 2 as well.

Fans theorized that Ritter might be leaving the series after Season 1 due to his casting in HBO‘s upcoming DC comics series, Lanterns. But Ritter confirmed to TV Insider that he’ll be in Matlock Season 2 at PaleyFest 2025 in Hollywood in March 2025.

“[My mustache is] for another show that I’m working on called Lanterns,” Ritter said, chuckling. “Mustaches can be shaved off. As soon as I’m done [with Lanterns], I’m back to Matlock.”

Where can you watch Matlock?

Season 1 of Matlock is currently streaming on Paramount+. The new season will air on CBS this fall.

That’s all there is to know about Matlock Season 2 for now, but stay tuned to TV Insider as we continue to report the latest updates.

Matlock, Season 2 Premiere, Fall 2025, CBS

Ina Garten’s Real-Life Struggles Are Truly Heartbreaking

Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

Based on her various Food Network shows, Ina Garten really seems like she’s perfected life. The star and mind behind the long-running “Barefoot Contessa” franchise left behind a White House job to pursue culinary creativity in the form of running a gourmet grocery store in one of America’s highest-end locales. Then she decided to share her secrets of cooking, entertaining, and just plain living well with the masses. Always calm and collected, Garten makes cooking on camera look glamorous, residing in a world that appears both enviable and elegant.

But while “Barefoot Contessa” is heavily couched in reality and depicts a lot of real elements from Garten’s life, it’s ultimately still a TV show. Offscreen, the seemingly superhuman Garten is just a person, and she’s faced more than her fair share of heartache, setbacks, and tragedy. Garten is known for rhetorically asking viewers, “How easy is that?” The answer, as it pertains to the cook and TV star, is “not always.” Here’s a look at the rarely explored dark and sad side of Ina Garten.

Ina Garten was raised in an abusive household

Shawn Ehlers/Getty Images

Growing up in New York and Connecticut in the 1950s and 1960s, Ina Garten remembers her mother, Florence Rosenberg, making sure that her children were taken care of and that their minds were enriched. “But none of it was done with joy or warmth,” Garten told Today. In retrospect, she believes that her mother lacked the emotional capacity to foster relationships, and that she maybe didn’t, or couldn’t, love her kids. “She didn’t understand me, actually,” Garten said. “I’m sure about that.”

While the damage endured from her mother came from a lack of emotional and physical contact, the treatment she received from her father, Charles Rosenberg, was unequivocally and outwardly abusive. “My father had very strict views of what we should do,” Garten recalled, which included excelling in school and at tennis. If she deviated from that ideal, she was “met with extreme anger.” That included physical abuse. “I actually stayed in my room to stay safe. I think I was terrified that he was going to kill me.” Garten recalls being pulled around by her hair as punishment for minor indiscretions. “I think he loved me, but he wanted me to be who he wanted me to be, without any consciousness of who I am,” Garten told The New Yorker.

Ina Garten and her brother weren’t allowed to interact much

Michael Bezjian/Getty Images

Ina Garten, formerly Ina Rosenberg, wasn’t raised alone in an emotionally cold household with her parents. The chef has a brother, Ken Rosenberg. However, she rarely saw him when they were kids — even though they grew up together at the same time and under the same roof.

The primary objective for the Rosenberg children, as dictated by their parents, was achieving success in school. Both Ina and Ken were tasked with devoting most of their time to studying, acquiring new knowledge, collecting achievements, and improving their mental acuity. That meant the children were largely kept apart, left to do their work on their own. “We were raised as if we were only children, with little interaction between us,” Garten wrote in her memoir, “Be Ready When Luck Happens.” “Neither of us remembers ever setting foot in the other’s bedroom,” she said. They only had one shared (but still very regulated) pastime. “We played chess (considered educational) at breakfast,” Garten recalled, adding that her brother always won.

Her food was strictly restricted in childhood

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Through her many best-selling cookbooks and “Barefoot Contessa” shows on Food Network, Ina Garten has introduced millions to the wonders of good food. That’s a stark and happy contrast to Garten’s relationship with food as a child, when she was under the care of her mother. Florence Rosenberg had studied to be a dietitian, and that education manifested in a heavily restricted diet for her children. Garten told The New Yorker that her mother was “obsessed with what she ate” and that food was largely about nutrition, not pleasure. “My mother didn’t understand pleasure.”

Most carbohydrates and all desserts were forbidden in Garten’s household when she was growing up. After Garten’s father suffered a heart attack just after the age of 40, all sources of dietary cholesterol were banned, too. That included butter and cream for coffee, with skim milk used instead. “You might as well put water in your coffee,” Garten said. In general, the choices were slim, bland, and stark. Garten recalled eating little more than broiled chicken, peas from a can (which ought to be avoided), and the occasional apple. “That’s why I make chocolate cake,” she quipped to Parade.

Ina Garten’s childhood impacted her own views on parenthood

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The former Ina Rosenberg wed Jeffrey Garten in December 1968 and the couple has always been a family of two. As if it’s anyone else’s business, Ina Garten has long had to answer questions from fans and reporters as to why she and her husband never had any children. It’s a conscious decision the couple arrived at, following some deliberation. “When I got married, I just thought I would be the wife and we would have children and we would have a traditional relationship,” Garten told Today in 2024. “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.” Jeffrey Garten concurred with his wife’s decision. “He wants me to be happy,” she explained.

Garten figured out what caused her to reject parenthood: her own rotten childhood. “I grew up in a family that wasn’t a happy family, so I couldn’t understand why people had kids,” she told People. “Nobody had any fun in my family. Now I understand it, but at the time, when I was 25 and 30, I just didn’t. It was nothing I really wanted to do.”

Ina and Jeffrey Garten nearly split up

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When Ina Garten was 15 years old, she accompanied her parents on a visit to her brother at Dartmouth College. Student Jeffrey Garten noticed Ina when she walked by. Miraculously, his roommate knew her — he belonged to the same tennis club as her brother, Ken, in Connecticut — and a date was arranged. About five years later, in 1968, Jeffrey and Ina Garten married, and they’re still together nearly 60 years later.

But about a decade after the wedding, Garten contemplated ending her marriage. While both spouses worked intensive and important jobs outside of the home, it was Ina Garen who was expected to still keep up with the tasks traditionally assigned to women, such as cooking and laundry. A few months after she started running the Barefoot Contessa store in 1978, Garten was so frustrated by the homemaking expectations placed upon her that she tried to walk away from it all. She asked Jeffrey to separate, but instead, they examined their relationship and rethought their roles. Joint appearances in public and on Food Network suggest that the pair’s relationship is still going strong today.

Her first big attempts at food flopped

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Ina Garten’s nickname, the Barefoot Contessa, is bestowed upon most of her professional projects, from cookbooks to Food Network programs. It all goes back to 1978, when Garten left her job at the White House Office of Management and Budget and purchased a small gourmet and specialty foods store in East Hampton. It was already called the Barefoot Contessa, itself named for a 1954 movie starring Ava Gardner. “I remember telling Jeffrey this may be the stupidest thing I’ve ever done, but it was also so exhilarating,” Garten recalled in a post on her Instagram in 2024.

Nearly two decades later, Garten realized that it was time to move on to something more difficult, and she sold the operation to its manager and chef. “What I didn’t like about running Barefoot Contessa was overshadowing what I used to love,” Garten wrote in “Be Ready When Luck Happens.” “I certainly wasn’t bringing any creativity to my work,” she added, lamenting having to spend time on shoplifting issues.

Eventually, Garten would become very comfortable on television, but her first attempt went poorly. In 2000, Martha Stewart’s company prepared a show for the Food Network called “Someone’s in the Kitchen with Ina.” Shot on location at Garten’s home, she got anxious with the crew traipsing around and feared she’d pale in comparison to Stewart. A director chastised her for talking with her mouth full, and Garten decided (albeit temporarily) that she didn’t want to appear on TV ever again. Food Network ultimately axed the project and never aired the footage.

Ina Garten’s parents died in rapid succession

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Through childhood and well into adulthood, Ina Garten’s relationships with both of her parents were emotionally fraught and tense. However, Garten began to make peace with Charles Rosenberg in 2001 at a party her parents held to celebrate the publication of their daughter’s second cookbook, “Barefoot Contessa Parties!” “My father and I were sitting in a corner. He said, ‘I don’t know what I was thinking,’” Garten recalled to The New Yorker, describing her father’s blanket apology for all past acts. “I realized he was torturing himself — he tortured us, but he was torturing himself that he’d done it.”

Rosenberg died in 2004, and scarcely two years later, Garten’s mother, Florence Rosenberg, died, too. They didn’t get to undertake the same healing that Garten and her father did. “He, in his own way, apologized and my mom never acknowledged it,” Garten lamented to People.

Ina Garten’s friendship with Martha Stewart fell apart

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Martha Stewart built an empire based on tasteful and well-done cooking, entertaining, decorating, and other aspects of the home, and she was so influential in the 1990s that she could pluck favorite artisans or curators out of obscurity and make them stars in their own right. In 1990, Stewart bought a home in East Hampton, New York, not far from where Garten lived. Stewart adored Garten’s Barefoot Contessa store, and this spawned both a close friendship and business arrangement, with a feature on the shopkeeper running in the very first issue of “Martha Stewart Living.” The pair were close enough that Stewart even shared her personal advice with Garten before her first book tour.

Some years later, Stewart shifted her base of operations to a house in Bedford, New York, causing the two to gradually grow apart and talk less. That’s according to Garten, at least. Stewart maintains that her former friend abandoned her during a low point. “When I was sent off to Alderson Prison, she stopped talking to me,” Stewart told The New Yorker for its profile on Garten. “I found that extremely distressing and extremely unfriendly.”

She botched a Make-A-Wish request

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Ina Garten’s “Barefoot Contessa” began airing on Food Network in 2002, and one of the many fans she acquired during her first decade on the air was a child named Enzo Pereda. Following a diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia at the age of 3, Pereda spent a lot of the next three years in bed, where he watched “Barefoot Contessa” for comfort. When the Make-A-Wish Foundation approached Pereda about fulfilling a lofty request, he knew exactly what to ask for: to spend some time and make a meal with Garten.

In a controversial move that the Food Network star probably wishes we’d forget, Garten declined the visit, as she was busy with a book tour at the time. Pereda and Make-A-Wish asked again in 2011. Once more, Pereda’s request was denied. The story went viral after Pereda’s mother discussed their non-relationship with Garten on her blog. Not long after, Garten invited Pereda to come by the set of “Barefoot Contessa,” with her team offering a quick explanation for her previous refusals. “Ina receives approximately 100 requests a month to support charitable causes,” a representative for Garten said in a statement (via ABC News). “She contributes both personally and financially on a regular basis to numerous causes, including to Make-A-Wish Foundation. Sadly, it’s of course not possible to do them all.” On behalf of his son, Adrian Pereda said no to Garten’s offer. “I don’t want my son to go through any other stress,” he said. “We just want to go on with our life.”

[VERY SAD] The Great American Baking Show Prue Leith says ‘I haven’t got much longer’ in worrying update

Prue Leith says ‘I can’t imagine I have long’ as she shares heartfelt update on her future

Great British Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith has admitted that she is keen to make the most of her life with her beloved husband John Playfair, as she considers how much time she has left

Dame Prue Leith admitted ‘I can’t imagine I have all that long’ as she shared her plans for the future (Image: Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images)

British culinary icon Dame Prue Leith has spoken candidly about her determination to embrace life fully, having become acutely conscious of her mortality upon entering her 80s.

At just 20-years-old Dame Prue attended the Cordon Bleu Cookery School where she learnt the skills of her trade before quickly seeing her career reach new heights.

Since then she has risen to become a beacon in the food industry, with one of her major career milestones coming when she launched her first restaurant, Leith’s in Notting Hill, London.

At 85, Dame Prue is also an established figure in television, most notably joining The Great British Bake Off as a judge alongside Paul Hollywood in 2017, filling the shoes of Dame Mary Berry.

Dame Prue began her cookery career at the Cordon Bleu Cookery School (Image: Ki Price, Getty Images)

In a heartfelt reflection during a conversation with Candis magazine, the much-loved Great British Bake Off judge shared her intent to seize each moment, saying: “I can’t imagine I have all that long”, while revealing her plans for a holiday to relish the summer with her husband, John Playfair, while they are both fit and well.

With her trademark spirit, Dame Prue divulged her current approach to life, remarking: “The great thing is to plan to have a future, I can’t imagine I have all that long because I’m 85, but I just intend to have a good time. My resolution these days is to just have fun.”

Meanwhile, she has also recently opened up about her noticeable absence from the celebrity version of the the Great British Bake Off earlier this year, attributing it to a desire for more spare time to relax as she grows older.

The culinary star revealed that the decision was influenced by the demanding filming schedule, stating: “It’s mainly because these things are filmed back to back.”

She has previously said how she is hoping to spend more time with her husband (Image: Dave Benett, Matt Keeble/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
She elaborated on the gruelling nature of the production timeline, saying: “The whole way through the summer, so you start in April and you end at the end of August.”

She added: “Honestly, you get no time off. And, I’m getting a bit old and there’s places I want to go.”

She tied the knot with John Playfair eight years ago (Image: Tristan Fewings, Getty Images)
In addition to discussing her wish to dedicate more time to her personal life, Dame Prue also paid a heartfelt homage to her husband, John, reflecting on the positive impact he has had on her life since tying the knot eight years ago.

She fondly remarked: “I think I’ve been so blessed because I have had really happy marriages. John and I have been together for 13 years and married for eight. He’s good fun and makes me laugh.”