Rachael Ray has had her share of difficulties over the past year.
In August 2020, her home in Lake Luzerne, New York, burned down in a devastating fire. Then, just over 12 months later, her New York City apartment flooded during the storms caused by Hurricane Ida. Speaking with People, the celebrity chef revealed how the second blow could not come at a worse time for her and husband John Cusimano, who had just finished redoing the apartment.
"We had finally just finished the work on making the [NYC] apartment over. And then, Ida took it out. And I mean, out. Down hard," she said. "Like, literally every speaker in the ceiling, the fireplace, every seam in the wall ... It was like the apartment just literally melted, like in Wicked or something."
Due to the damage, Ray explained that it took a week for the remediation team to assess the damage, but their problems were not over yet.
"The remediation team comes in. They put up their fans and their humidifiers. And then, they make a hole in the wall and break the main water pipe and flood the entire building down to the first floor, from our apartment on the sixth floor," Ray said. "The people that we were waiting for, the cavalry, burst this pipe and made everything worse. Tell me you would not feel like a kicked can."
Last year's fire that ravaged Ray's house was so big that it took several hours and up to 12 fire departments to control it. Ray, Cusimano, and their dog, Bella, were at home at the time but managed to make it out unscathed. Sadly, the house was of particular significance to Ray who in a video clip last year recalled designing her home on a piece of paper.
"I decorated the house before it was ever built," she said in the video, according to Daily Mail. "I drew the house on a piece of paper so I knew what I wanted it to be in my mind."
Despite the setbacks, Ray said they were looking at the positives. After the fire, they were still able to move into their guest house next door. They also recently visited the villa they owned in Tuscany, Italy.
"There are so much worse positions we could be in. I mean, I'm alive. And I do have a roof over my head. And I do have a job," Ray said. "At the end of the day, we always come back to grateful. John and I talk about it a lot," she continued. "We really talk ourselves right through it at the end or the beginning of every day. Some days are different than others. But we try and just say, 'Okay. Here's the new plan. Here's today's version of the plan. Look at how much we have to be grateful for.'"
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Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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