Ina Garten, the renowned celebrity chef and TV personality, has shared her deeply personal story of overcoming a troubled childhood in her new memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens. In the book, Garten reveals that she was subjected to emotional and physical abuse by her parents, which left her with deep emotional scars.
Garten, who has written 13 cookbooks and won six Daytime Emmy Awards for her Food Network shows, opens up about her difficult childhood in the memoir. She writes about how her parents had a "my way or the highway" approach to child-rearing, and how any attempts at noncompliance were met with anger and violence.
"I was only three when I begged our babysitter not to tell my father I had done something he would disapprove of because I was terrified of the consequences," Garten writes. "When he got angry, which was often, anything could happen. He'd hit me or pull me around by my hair. I was trapped in a cycle of neglect and abuse."
Garten's childhood experiences had a profound impact on her life, and she ultimately decided not to have children of her own. "I grew up in a family that wasn't a happy family, so I couldn't understand why people had kids," she tells PEOPLE. "Nobody had any fun in my family. Now I understand it, but at the time, when I was 25 and 30, I just didn't. It was nothing I really wanted to do."
Despite her difficult childhood, Garten has gone on to build a successful career and a devoted fan base. Her memoir is a powerful and inspiring story of overcoming adversity and finding happiness and peace.
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