For many years, Meals Community chef Rachael Ray has warmed America’s hearts along with her funds meals and culinary catch phrases like “yum-o” and “delish.”
However now, apprehensive followers are calling for a temperature test over the chef’s weird habits.
“People have been concerned about her for the past couple of years,” a TV insider advised The Submit, following reviews she was slurring her speech in a cooking video just lately, main apprehensive followers to query in Ray is alright.
“There’s always been rumors that she drinks,” stated a supply, who was fast to level out they didn’t know if she might be affected by a medical situation.
Sources near Ray say there’s no problem, she’s “taking care of herself” and “doing things on her own terms.”
“Rachael Ray is someone that isn’t into hair and makeup, and high heels. People are judging her based off of what a standard of beauty is. She’s not that girl,” the TV insider stated.
On Wednesday, Ray stepped out at a media occasion at Ray’s Bar on the Decrease East Facet to advertise her spirits model Staple Gin, shaking up cocktails behind the bar clad in an outsized blazer, denims, Nike sneakers, and clear-framed glasses subsequent to her husband, musician and lawyer John Cusimano, 57.
“I wouldn’t have my name associated with the actual gin because if you don’t like me or you think my voice is funny, or whatever, you could still buy the gin,” Ray quipped, giving her hubby credit score for his cocktail-making abilities.
“I wrote the recipe for the gin, I really did. Worked on it a long, long time. But my husband is responsible for all the cocktails that are made,” she advised the group.
In Might, Ray appeared to slur her phrases in a cooking video shared to Instagram on Mom’s Day, displaying her standing over a stovetop.
She recalled a time when she was “very, very poor” dwelling in Glens Falls, New York; earlier than her large break in 2002 with “$40 A Day,” the present which noticed her present easy methods to stay healthily on a low funds, catapulting her to a family identify.
“Rachael worried about you!” one fan wrote within the feedback.
“Rachael, are you okay? You don’t look well,” one other requested.
In June, an insider claimed to the Day by day Mail that one thing “seemed off” with Ray who confirmed “bizarre behavior” whereas conversing with followers and handing out bottles of her gin and baseball caps at an occasion at Broadway Spirits in Manhattan.
“She got oddly close to some people, hugging them in a way that seemed overly familiar as she posed for photos,” the supply stated.
“You know how Drew Barrymore acts with celebrity guests on her talk show — just like that.”
Final October, within the debut episode of her podcast “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead,” Ray admitted a few of her housekeeping was on pause as a result of she suffered “a couple of bad falls in the last couple of weeks,” once more sparking fear over her well being.
A rep for Ray advised The Submit: “Sure, now we have seen some feedback and questions from followers. Rachael focuses on the vast majority of followers asking her for assist getting dinner on the desk or for methods they’ll greatest feed their household with meals costs on the rise.
“Rachael is working at her usual vigorous pace.”
Behind the chef’s sunny persona is a mountain of grief. In Might 2020, Ray’s beloved pit bull Isaboo died.
“[My dog] died in my arms,” she stated on the time in an interview with EXTRA. “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.”
Then her house in Lake Luzerne, New York, burned down in a chimney hearth that August.
A 12 months later, in 2021, her New York Metropolis residence was flooded throughout Hurricane Ida.
“She was dealing with trauma,” the TV insider advised The Submit.
This June, Ray paid tribute to her longtime buddy, fellow Meals Community chef Anne Burrell, who died by suicide in June at age 55. She stated the demise left her “truly shaken.”
“She was a force in the kitchen, in any room, in every life she touched,” Ray wrote in a tribute on Instagram.
Ray reached Meals Community superstardom with “30 Minute Meals,” the place she made reasonably priced meals, quick for working households within the early 2000s.
She additionally launched her namesake way of life journal and a nationally syndicated discuss present, “Rachael Ray,” which ran for 17 seasons from 2006 to 2023.
Comply with The Submit’s protection on Anne Burrell’s demise
Her remaining episodes of the daytime gabfest ended with emotional tributes from celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama and she or he left an enormous gap in ABC community’s schedule.
“Her show did well with ratings, [ABC] couldn’t find another show to replace her. That was the challenge.”
Regardless of retiring from discuss TV, sources near Ray say she’s removed from throwing within the dish towel on her profession.
“I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” has confirmed a success, with company like chef Jacques Pepin and Dr. Ian Smith, who had steadily appeared on her discuss present.
“Rachael is doing really well — in fact, she’s working harder than ever. She’s constantly on the move, traveling between her homes in upstate New York and Tuscany, Italy, where she’s filming new episodes for her A&E shows, while also making frequent trips to New York City for events, media, and business meetings,” a supply near Ray advised The Submit.
“She’s taking real care of herself. She is still building and growing. She’s not slowing down — just doing things on her own terms.”
