The Truth About Rachael Ray Losing Another Home
Can someone give Rachael Ray a break? While the rest of humanity is trying to move on after 2020, the cooking show host is still picking up the pieces of her life. But it's not so easy to rebuild a home while mourning the loss of a treasured family member. Not only was Rachael's Adirondacks home was ravished by a fire after an ember from the chimney landed on her roof, but her dog Isaboo died in May 2020, too. The chef showed the world the shell of what remained of her upstate New York home after the fire in a heartwrenching video where she said, "On August 9th, my house burned. Fifteen years of memories; 40 years of notebooks, drawings, thoughts, my life's work."
And even though things seemed rough, Rachael revealed that she and her husband's marriage was stronger than ever. She and John M. Cusimano relied on each other to get through last year. She spoke to People about their relationship in September, saying, "We knew we'd get through this together." She and Cusimano have been married since 2005, and she shared that although they both had "volatile personalities" they are "both very practical too." She said, "At the end of the day, John and I, we always come back to grateful. Some days are different than others, but we try to say, 'Okay, here's the new plan,' even when we get down."
Now, it seems they will need to support each other through another challenge.
Hurricane Ida brought another devastating loss for Rachael Ray
They say lightning doesn't strike twice — unless, it seems, Rachael Ray's real estate is involved. The 53-year-old revealed in September that the seemingly impossible had happened to her again, per the New York Post. This time around, her Manhattan apartment was flooded by Hurricane Ida. She again spoke to People and shared that the storm had devastated the apartment after she and her husband had just renovated it. "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.
Apparently, Hurricane Ida meant business. She revealed, "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." And just because it's Rachael, things got progressively worse when the remediation team arrived a week later. "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," she divulged. So, instead of a contained disaster, there were now six floors dealing with a much bigger problem. As Rachael said, "The people that we were waiting for, the cavalry, burst this pipe and made everything worse."
However, it has not only been doom and gloom for Rachael and her husband. Here's why.
Rachael Ray rebuilt her home in New York and finished her Tuscany dream house
In August 2020, Rachael Ray and her husband, John M. Cusimano, lost their home in a fire. It took them a year, but they finally showed off the shell of their rebuilt home. Most of the work has been done, and the house looks close to what it originally did. In the clip, Rachael explained, "The reason the house looks old even when it's new, or new again, is because all of this is fallen wood like old barns, aged wood. It's literally old wood ... which gave the house the warmth it had."
Rachael Ray also divulged to People that she has achieved her "life's goal." The TV food chef revealed that three years ago, she and Cusimano purchased a Tuscan property that was apparently only "two structures." At the time, her husband called it a "war zone," but she stated, "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." However, their renovation plans came to a halt for various reasons, including the pandemic and their passports being lost in the Adirondacks house fire. "But finally the work started and ... should look less like a war zone and more like a villa," she dished.
Finally, things are coming around for Rachael. Here's to bigger, better, and stronger houses!