The Biggest Rumors About Giuliana Rancic

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Giuliana Rancic is a pioneer of the entertainment news industry, having built an entire career out of interviewing celebrities and critiquing their personal style for E! News. Rancic initially joined the network as a correspondent back in 2002 and was promoted to co-anchor in 2005, a title she held for the next decade. However, mounting controversy slowly pushed the TV personality out of the spotlight and she ultimately retired from E! in 2021. Despite Rancic's best efforts to build a new empire (she joined HSN alongside launching her own clothing and home lines), the former host has failed to regain the same level of fame. 

However, while speaking with People in 2024, Rancic clarified that she was actually enjoying her quieter life as it afforded her the opportunity to focus more on family. Even so, despite making the most of it, part of the reason why the prolific TV personality stepped back was likely out of her control. She's long been plagued by rumors that haven't painted her in the most flattering light. And while Rancic has tried her best to dispel them, they've continued to haunt her and tarnish her reputation. Here are the biggest rumors Giuliana Rancic has had to contend with over the years.

Giuliana Rancic's slim figure has long sparked talk of health issues. She added fuel to the fire in 2011 when the TV host shared her go-to diet tips. In a since-deleted blog post, saved by WRAL, Rancic described how she relied on various teas and Kashi bars to stay full throughout the day. The Hollywood mainstay also revealed that whenever she dined out, she had strict instructions for restaurant staff. "I ALWAYS say NO BUTTER, NO OIL," Rancic wrote, encouraging her readers, "Tell them to cook it in a light mist of Pam cooking spray."

The blog came back to haunt her in 2015 when the TV host made several high-profile red carpet appearances, including at the Golden Globes, in which she looked particularly thin. Countless users referenced it on Reddit while alleging the reason for her look was an eating disorder. "That is some serious disordered thinking right there," went one such comment. "Very sad." Speculation grew so rampant that Rancic eventually addressed it directly, telling HuffPost she's never had problems with food. Her drastic weight loss was apparently caused by the cancer-suppressing drug she'd been taking since beating breast cancer in 2011. 

"It's really hurtful," Rancic admitted to People of the constant rumors. "I'm sorry that some people think I'm disgustingly skinny, as they put it, but there's nothing I can do." Adding that she simply can't gain weight, no matter what she does, Rancic reassured those worried for her health, "I eat a very robust, healthy, balanced diet and dessert almost every night."

Giuliana Rancic and Joan Rivers got to know each other well as co-hosts of E!'s "Fashion Police" and, according to the E! News stalwart, they built a positive rapport on set. Following Rivers' sudden death in 2014 due to complications from an endoscopy, Rancic confessed to ABC News, "It was the shock of a lifetime." Revealing she had seen the comedian just two days prior when they filmed the hit show, Rivers' co-host just couldn't believe the news. "Joan really was larger than life," she mused. "I think that's a reason I can't imagine her gone." Interestingly, Rancic also offered a glimpse into their working relationship as she quipped, "I still think she's going to walk through the door and yell, 'Giuliana, get back to work.'"

While the comment may have been meant as a joke, multiple such admissions hinted that the pair may actually have been closer to frenemies than best buds. Consider that, when "Fashion Police" debuted in 2002, Rivers hadn't even bothered to learn how to pronounce her co-host's name properly. "My name is spelled kind of funny for a lot of people," Rancic acknowledged during a chat with E! News. "She looked at it, and you could just see it on her face." Over a decade later, the duo made headlines again when Rivers was asked for her thoughts on Rancic changing her hair color from brown to blonde. "I don't like it," the famously outspoken comedian bluntly told E! News. "I think for her skin tone, I like her better dark."

Giuliana Rancic nearly destroyed her career with a single comment in February 2015 while critiquing Zendaya's Oscars look on "Fashion Police." During the infamous segment, which instantly went viral, Rancic said she appreciated the young actor's style, but not her dreadlocks. "The hair to me on her is making her a little more boho," she opined, per People. "I feel like she smells like patchouli oil, or weed." The comment was quickly called out for being racist and the actor very publicly took offence to it, but the TV personality tried to silence talk of it being tied to skin color. As she apologized both on-air and online, Rancic argued, "[It] had NOTHING to do with race and NEVER would!!!" (via X, formerly known as Twitter). 

But the story simply wouldn't go away. An insider subsequently dished to People that the joke had actually been scripted for Rancic by a writer. What's more, they alleged that it wasn't even aired in full and the editing made it sound much worse than it was. "If you see what she actually said, it's clear she wasn't making a racial joke," they asserted. Rancic herself doubled down on those claims, reasoning to Today that it all came down to bad editing. "It was truly a joke about the hippie culture," she argued, claiming that everyone on set thought it was acceptable when they heard it in full. "I thought that the joke was not edited in the proper way."

Giuliana Rancic's downfall may have been set off by her now infamous Zendaya comments, but it was apparently her attitude behind the scenes that truly cemented her fall from grace. Soon after Rancic threw shade at the actor's dreadlocks, co-host Kelly Osbourne (a friend of Zendaya's) took to social media to share that she was considering leaving the show. Meanwhile, fellow co-host Kathy Griffin reprimanded Rancic for her poor judgement. "I wouldn't have said the joke in the first place," she rationalized in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times magazine (via the Los Angeles Times), adding, "Don't have anyone write you jokes or even suggest jokes for you."

Just a few days later, Osbourne followed through on her threat and quit "Fashion Police," followed by Griffin less than two weeks later. However, while the joke may have been the final straw, both women had issues with Rancic long before. "[They] couldn't deal with Giuliana's diva behavior," an insider disclosed to RadarOnline, claiming that Griffin in particular was bothered by her large entourage and her reported habit of crying when things didn't go her way. "Her constant need for attention [was] absolutely stunning to Kathy," they alleged. What's more, co-hosts Melissa Rivers and Brad Goreski, as well as the show's executive producer, reportedly weren't big fans of Rancic either. "Giuliana's presence just gets everyone on edge," another source told RadarOnline.

One of the biggest reasons we don't hear from Giuliana Rancic much anymore is that she left the small screen in a cloud of bad publicity. Five months after she was taken to task for mocking Zendaya on the air, Rancic announced she was departing "E! News" in July 2015. According to her official statement, she was planning to "take my wine and clothing lines to the next level" (via CNN) while also continuing to co-host "Fashion Police," which was ultimately axed in 2017. Following news of her departure, Rancic was once again surrounded by rumors, this time claiming that she had actually been fired. 

Trying to shut down the whispers, she maintained to People, "It was 100 percent my decision to leave." In fact, it had been a long time coming, with the former host saying, "I brought up the idea to leave three years ago, but E! News kept extending me." Rancic similarly denied reports that she had been let go because of a secret feud with E! News correspondent Maria Menounos. "They're absurd" she decried, underscoring that she's always gotten along with all of her co-hosts and that she was simply ready for new career challenges. "There is no feud," Rancic continued. "It takes two to feud, and I'm not feuding!"

While it looks like a picture-perfect marriage from the outside, the truth about Bill and Giuliana Rancic's relationship is that it may not be entirely immune to drama. Indeed, the couple, who started dating in 2006 and got married less than a year later, has sparked plenty of chatter about trouble in paradise. Over the years, numerous red flags in Giuliana and Bill Rancic's marriage have been dissected, like the fact that their union started with a lie. As Giuliana confessed to OK! magazine, she told her future husband she was 29 instead of 31. "I just knew he was the type of guy who would never Google it," Giuliana said, seemingly throwing shade at her partner.

The prolific TV personality further fanned the flames of divorce rumors in March 2018 when she walked the Oscars red carpet without a wedding ring. Giuliana later clarified that it simply didn't match her outfit, but it's worth noting that the very same month, the couple put their Chicago home up for sale. Again, Giuliana had an explanation, shrugging to People that they simply enjoyed moving house. However, the biggest fodder for the divorce rumor mill was her 2019 memoir, "Going Off Script," which showed she and Bill are no strangers to arguing — a lot. 

During a trip to Hawaii, for example, she was so mad when Bill didn't propose to her that she gave him the silent treatment for 10 hours. The book also detailed how the celebrity couple didn't always portray themselves truthfully on their mid-2000s reality show. "We argued about it constantly," Giuliana wrote. "We'd have to pretend we weren't p***ed off when the crews arrived."

Giuliana and Bill Rancic's marriage is full of strange quirks. According to the entrepreneur, their union has been successful largely because both parties are able to diffuse tense situations. Indeed, speaking with Digital Spy in 2011, Bill praised his wife's attitude during disagreements, sharing, "She's really laidback so we don't have any major blow outs." And yet, it seems like the truth may not match up with that claim. According to "Taste of Taylor" podcast host Taylor Strecker, the duo actually has a much colder, sharper rapport than what they showed fans on "Giuliana & Bill." 

The podcaster revealed to Page Six, in 2024, that an interview she once had with the celebrity couple proved to be "traumatic" as she witnessed the trouble in paradise first-hand. "Giuliana Rancic was a nightmare," Strecker claimed, recalling how the Rancics showed up to record their episode in the middle of an argument and soon, Giuliana was trying to get her involved. 

"I was in the middle of a wasp's nest," the "Taste of Taylor" host recalled. "She was almost, like, using me to take potshots at him." Not only did Strecker feel uncomfortable, but she claimed that the former "Fashion Police" co-host eventually got mad at her as well. "She went and complained about me to the other interviews that she had for the rest of the day," the podcaster alleged.