Celebrated chef and television personality Rachael Ray has opened up about why she prefers living in Italy to living in the U.S.
In an interview with Us Weekly, the 57-year-old, who lives in Tuscany, explained why she favors the lifestyle she has there over the one she had in New York.
“It’s quiet. The dog is much happier. She hates New York City. Bella is not a New Yorker at all. So, for the dog’s sake, I spend as much time [in Italy] as I can,” Ray explained.
“She has a swimming pool and 66 hectares to run around on, and everything is very quiet, and the air is very fresh, and we have huge gardens and a vineyard and olive trees, and I just prefer that life.”
Ray, who has had an illustrious television career thanks to her talk and lifestyle show, Rachael Ray, as well as her numerous cooking shows, bought her Tuscan villa in 2021 after losing her home in Lake Luzerne, New York, in a devastating fire in 2020.
Initially, the home was just “two structures” in dire need of repair, prompting her husband of 20 years, John Cusimano, to describe the property as a war zone.
In the Fall 2021 issue of her magazine Rachael Ray In Season, she wrote, “‘Honey, don’t you want to look at a…house?’ he asked. But I fell in love with the fields and the views and I thought for the money we’d pay for a house, we could build something that’s really, truly ours.”
Ray added that Cusimano, “loves being in New York,” and that she tells him, “Hey, go as often as you like, stay as long as you want.”
“I come to New York and upstate New York when I have work, I prefer Italy,” Ray explained.
Ray and Cusimano celebrated their anniversary late last month, with Ray describing it in an Instagram post as “the ultimate dinner party, always full of laughter, flavor and a little bit of spice.”
Ray is one of several high-profile celebrities who prefers life outside the U.S., with comedians Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen Degeneres, as well as actress Eva Longoria, all emigrating in recent years, with Degeneres and O’Donnell specifically citing the re-election of Donald Trump as their reason for doing so.
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