Rachael Ray has got fans worried about her health after admitting she’s had “a couple of bad falls” recently, just weeks after sharing a video where she appeared to be slurring her words.
However, the celebrity cook seemed to be in good spirits on October 18 when she appeared on stage at the Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival to host her annual Burger Bash event (see photo above). She took to the stage with her husband, John Cusimano, and announced the winner of the fan-favorite burger competition.
The latest health concerns mark a long history of medical issues and dramatic episodes for the 56-year-old Food Network star. Here are some of the things Rachael has gone through in her life:
MUGGED TWICE IN ONE WEEK
In 1997, Ray was mugged twice by the same culprit in the foyer of her Woodside, Queens apartment in NYC. “This kid comes in behind me—next thing I know he shoves my face up against the door, jams a gun into my back and says, ‘Give me your bag.’ I flipped the top off the mace my dad had given me when I moved to New York City, spun around and started screaming,” Ray told People in a 2007 interview.
The former talk show host said the same kid returned the next week, explaining, “The whole thing was in slow motion. He dragged me down the alley and beat the crap out of me with his gun.”
After that, she moved back upstate. “Dude, I got mugged twice within one week! Wouldn’t you want to leave?” she said. “It freaked me out for a year.”
CHILDHOOD CROUP
In a 2006 interview with People, Ray explained that her signature raspy voice is due to suffering from the viral respiratory infection croup as a child. “I lose my voice a lot,” she said. “I don’t have the strongest vocal cords to begin with.”
According to Newsweek, when rumors started circulating in 2008 about Ray having throat cancer, the TV star’s rep clarified she would be undergoing “very minor surgery” to remove a benign cyst from her vocal cord.
“It’s a common in-and-out procedure that she will have in early December and it will not adversely affect any of her daytime show or Food Network tapings,” her rep said at the time.
VOCAL THERAPY
Ahead of her vocal cord surgery, Ray underwent “vocal coaching” and “therapy” to try and alleviate her condition.
“Her doctors felt that with some vocal coaching and therapy, they could reduce the size of the cyst and have it eventually disappear,” her rep told ABC News in 2009. “She went to vocal therapy and learned techniques on how to use her voice differently.”
LAKE HOUSE FIRE
In August 2020, Ray’s home in New York State’s Lake Luzerne was destroyed in a fire. Ray, her husband, and their dog were at the house when the fire broke out, and they managed to escape unscathed.
“Everyone was able to get out safely,” Brian LaFleure, director of emergency services and fire coordinator for the county, told CNN at the time. “There were no injuries, which was good. Right now, we’re in the process of determining what the cause may be. It’s nothing suspicious, but we’re looking to determine what the cause was.”
FLOODED APARTMENT
If a house fire wasn’t enough, in September 2021, Ray’s New York City apartment got flooded as a result of Hurricane Ida. To make matters worse, she had only recently splurged lots of money getting it refurbished. She told People that the hurricane destroyed “every speaker in the ceiling, the fireplace, every seam in the wall.”
Then, when a remediation team came to assess the damage, they broke a water pipe, flooding the apartment all over again. Ray, however, wasn’t injured during the ordeal.
RelatedRachael Ray Opens Up About Her Explosive Marriage & Admits Being ‘Hot Tempered’
SLURRED SPEECH
In early September 2024, Ray posted a video on Instagram from her FYI series Rachael Ray in Tuscany. Many fans felt that Ray was slurring her speech, with some speculating she could have suffered a stroke. Ray has not addressed the concerns over the video.
A COUPLE OF BAD FALLS
In the debut episode of her I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead podcast, which premiered on Tuesday, October 22, 2024, Ray revealed she’d had “a couple of bad falls in the last couple of weeks,” which has stopped her from helping her husband carry wood. Ray didn’t reveal how the falls happened or the extent of her injuries.
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