Strange Things About Rachael Ray's Marriage

Many couples initially bond over shared interests such as music, food, or movies, but Rachael Ray and John Cusimano bonded over something entirely different — their shared genetics. The genetics in question? Their height. The couple reportedly met at a mutual friend's birthday party, where they were the shortest guests. Ray, who stands 5 feet 1 inch tall, noticed that everyone at the party was rather tall, except for Cusimano, who is 5 feet 7 inches. 

"We walked directly across the room to each other," Ray told AOL in 2014, and that was that. "My husband and I have been together on the phone or in person every single day since the night we met." It's clear Ray is a big fan of her hubby; she added, "He's a lawyer, and he has a rock band." However, their meeting on that fateful day wasn't exactly love at first sight. More on that in a moment.

In 2007, People asked Rachael Ray how she manages to make time for her husband while juggling such a hectic schedule as a celebrity chef and talk show host. Her answer: she doesn't! "I can't give a man an enormous amount of attention," she told the mag. "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." 

During a 2015 episode of her talk show, Ray explained that she and Cusimano were very independent people before they joined their lives together, and they've held onto that freedom since marrying. "He has his music, I love to cook, so we're not on each other all the time," she said.

You also won't catch Cusimano sitting down and banging his utensils on the kitchen table, hollering, "Me want food!" According to Ray, he's the least demanding person ever. "He doesn't care if he gets dinner at 8 o'clock or 10 o'clock or 6 o'clock," she said. "He's actually very easy to be married to, but you can't have him!"

Barely a year into Rachael Ray and John Cusimano's marriage, the National Enquirer published a cover story claiming that Cusimano had engaged in a five-year relationship with a Florida woman, Jeaninne Walz, that continued into his marriage with Ray. There was also a second woman who was reportedly paid by Cusimano "to satisfy his weird sex fetishes."

Ray got fed up with all the rumors and finally decided to address them during an episode of her television show. "Everybody gossips ... but this stuff is hurting people's feelings who are in our families and friends of ours," she told her audience in 2007 (via Extra). "They worry about us." The celebrity chef also encouraged her fans to stop purchasing tabloid magazines. "The tabloids won't stop printing this junk until people stop buying it," she said.

A celebrity marriage in the spotlight always sounds appealing, but this type of marriage faces a unique challenge: tabloids will be around for a while. Rachael Ray's marriage faced that challenge again in 2013 when it was placed, once again, in the crosshairs of the National Enquirer.

John Cusimano probably figured out early that a relationship with Rachael Ray would be a wild ride; for a man who usually displays a laid-back demeanor, Ray's at times high-strung demeanor could be intense. However, Cusimano once demonstrated an unorthodox way to take their relationship to the next level. Roughly 20 years ago, the couple hoped that an apartment they purchased in New York would be ready by the holidays. Ray wound up sobbing uncontrollably after discovering their pad wouldn't be primed in time. Hoping to mitigate a full-scale Ray meltdown, Cusimano decided that that was the perfect time to propose.

"I wanted her to stop crying, so I threw the ring at her head," he recalled on an episode of "Rachael." "It was a blue box, I'm not going to say where it came from ... and she thought it was a key ring, because we got this new apartment, and it wasn't. And then she screamed and I said something which I thought at the time was very charming, but I have no idea what I said." No doubt the incident would rank low on a list of best-ever proposals. 

Sadly, after replacing the rings and keeping the OG ones in her wallet, Ray's original engagement and wedding rings were stolen. So was the replacement set. A second ring replacement was lost in a house fire in 2021. "I'm 0 for 3 with engagement rings, everybody!" Cusimano remarked on a more recent "Rachael" episode. "Good for me!"

With their marriage on the verge of hitting two decades, there's no doubt that they genuinely support each other through thick and thin. During the coronavirus pandemic, the couple devised a plan to record the show from home. They also leaned on each other after a house fire in 2021 left them emotionally distraught. "The waves that come over us; we never see them coming," said Rachael Ray on a "Rachael" episode. "Thankfully, we haven't had them on the same day. One of us has a breakdown at a time."

But when the couple have a few differences to settle, they're the first to admit they don't do it civilly. That said, once the steam's released, the conflict is over. "When we are mad at each other, we scream," Ray told People. "If John is being an a–hole, I tell him, then I feel better. And John does the same thing. We share a great sense of humor, which helps." 

Despite those occasional fallouts, Ray said the glue to their marriage is a genuine affection for each other. "We actually like each other, have a lot of the same interests, and find it sexy to share bad behavior, like staying up too late, eating the wrong foods, and listening to loud music — rap, opera and any of our 3,000 records — wherever we are."