Rachael Ray and her husband of nearly 20 years have a “weird way” of providing a balance in their marriage.
During the third episode of Ray’s new podcast, “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead,” Ray invited guest Jacques Pépin to discuss the importance of marriage. Ray told the French chef that she and her husband, musician and lawyer John Cusimano, “brought something to each other.”
“You know, [John is] a lawyer and a musician,” Ray began. “I’m not a musician. I’m certainly no lawyer. I hate reading legal documents and official stuff, but we balance each other in a weird way. We allow each other to be open to different worlds.”
She added, “I also think it’s fun to be able to get out thoughts truthfully.”
Ray and Cusimano tied the knot in Italy in 2005 and renewed their vows in 2015 at the same castle in Tuscany where they said, “I do.”
During the podcast, Ray credited her husband for being an “essential” part of her success.
“I love my husband, John, and John works with me and has built our business and our brand together, but we agreed in concept about service to community, service to the world, service to animals, to children,” Ray said.
She continued, “It was very important to me that I marry him, because I thought this person could be a true partner in what I believe in and helping people and building not a business, but a community.”
This is not the first time that Ray has spoken candidly about her marriage with Cusimano on her podcast, which debuted in October. The former Food Network star revealed a few unconventional tips and tricks that help keep the relationship going strong.
“I am very wildly, wildly, wildly lucky that I have my husband,” she said on her podcast’s first episode. “But he understands I need my space. He needs his space.”
She also said that she and Cusimano do not believe in avoiding conflicts.
“It’s very hard, especially for hot-tempered or creative or vociferous, loud people to be able to just calm it down,” Ray told her guest, Jenny Mollen.
“John and I don’t calm it down ever. We have huge screaming matches all the time, but I think that’s healthy. I really do. And I don’t trust people that are too quiet.
“Too quiet freaks me out. I prefer that you tell me what you think when you think it, and let’s just get it all out there.”
Ray and Cusimano have a unique way of making up after an argument, too.
“I don’t know that we ever apologize to each other,” the “30 Minute Meals” star said. “Eventually, I pat him on his a– or he kisses me on the head, and that’s just sort of it. That’s the apology.
“It’s just sort of understood. ‘I still like your a–. I still like your head.’ It’s kind of in that zone.”
