Ina Garten Reveals The Reason She Never Had Children

Ina Garten has been married to her husband Jeffrey for over 50 years. The couple seems very happy together, and are definitely successful and affluent, so some people have wondered — why didn't Ina and Jeffrey ever have kids? 

While it's not exactly polite to pry into someone's personal life with this type of question, the Gartens are public figures, and Ina has actually spoken publicly about her decision not to have children. Like everything else Ina does, her decision was well-thought out, and she speaks about it as elegantly as she does planning a perfect dinner party for loved ones. When it came down to it, Garten says she knew from an early age that she didn't want to have kids. 

"It was a choice I made very early," she said in an appearance on the Katie Couric podcast. "We decided not to have children. I really appreciate that other people do and we will always have friends that have children that we are close to..." Garten explained. "I really felt, I feel, that I would have never been able to have the life I've had. So it's a choice and that was the choice I made" (via The Cut). 

It makes sense. The couple's 50 years together have been productive and busy. At times they've spent months apart, living separately while throwing themselves into their work, and it's hard to imagine doing all of that, traveling, and throwing elaborate soirees at their East Hamptons home while also having to worry about little ones stomping through the herb garden or accidentally spilling juice on just-drafted cookbook pages. 

Garten sounds happy and confident in her decision, and it's nice to hear her talk about choosing to be child-free. Jeffrey seems content with their situation, too, saying "We don't have any children. I'm her family" (via Johns Hopkins Magazine). 

Child-free, the couple has been able to explore the world, their careers, and each other, unencumbered by kids for the past half-century, and it definitely seems to be working for them.