What The Cameras Don't Show Us About Giada De Laurentiis

Giada De Laurentiis is Food Network royalty. Her cooking show "Everyday Italian" debuted on the channel in 2003 and made De Laurentiis a celebrity. Cookbooks swiftly followed, followed by a beauty contract with Clairol hair color and a namesake restaurant. De Laurentiis is living the good life, but there's a lot about the chef the cameras don't see.

De Laurentiis has dealt with struggles in her private life — many of which are related to her public image. Her bubbly personality and sex appeal have been heavily criticized in a male-led industry that perpetually picks apart women who dare to be ambitious and attractive at the same time. This scrutiny has given De Laurentiis a "love her or hate her" reputation within food media and elsewhere. At the very least, it has caused her to be a little misunderstood. Commentary about her appearance and rumors about her off-camera behavior have been tabloid fodder for years.

Gossip aside, other aspects of who De Laurentiis is aren't always captured by the lens. The 54-year-old chef, who heads a namesake food and lifestyle brand called Giadzy, projects an air of openness, yet parts of her personality and her family life aren't available for public viewing. Want to know more about what's behind that million-watt smile? This is what the cameras don't show us about Giada De Laurentiis.

In January 2025, wildfires ravaged L.A. in a days-long blaze, and the fallout has been tremendous. Over 12,000 structures were destroyed, and the Pacific Palisades region of Northern L.A. was hit especially hard. Many celebrities call Pacific Palisades home, including Giada De Laurentiis. Famed actors like Billy Crystal and Anthony Hopkins reported that their Pacific Palisades homes had been reduced to ash, but De Laurentiis kept quiet.

The chef regularly shares photos and videos on Instagram that give her 2.3 million followers a glimpse into her life. When De Laurentiis took a break from the platform during the fires, fans and fellow chefs publicly expressed concern. De Laurentiis gave an Instagram update on January 14th, posting a photo from the back of herself, daughter Jade Thompson, and boyfriend Shane Farley, walking their dogs in the street. The caption read: "A very long & heartbreaking week in our community. Right now, we're thankful for each other & our safety. Sending love to you all."

De Laurentiis hasn't spoken about any fire damage to her home, but she's put some professional obligations on the back burner. Days after her Instagram post, it was announced that De Laurentiis pulled out of her scheduled appearance at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival in February. She has been a popular fixture at the annual event for years.

Based on De Laurentiis' on-camera persona, it's hard to believe that she's introverted by nature. "I'm actually super shy!" De Laruentiis told Frontdoors Media in 2024, "I love all of the craziness that comes with this job, but I love coming home and just being with my family ..."

When "Everyday Italian" was in its infancy, De Laurentiis had a hard time opening up on camera. On a 2016 episode of the Bon Appétit podcast, De Laurentiis described forcing herself to come out of her shell for TV "I was so, so goddamn nervous because I had never been in front of the camera alone ... I was like, who am I talking to? Who is this?" she said, calling the first season of "Everyday Italian," "horrible."

De Laurentiis has also commented on hating big crowds and not wanting to be touched by fans. She has expressed that she wishes she could tell fans not to run up and touch her, and that it's been a "tricky" subject. This sentiment may seem standoffish, but what's so wrong about advocating for a little personal space?

Food Network viewers often poke fun at Giada De Laurentiis' over-pronunciation of Italian dishes and ingredients, and though it came off as affected much of the time, the accent wasn't phony. De Laurentiis was born in Rome and lived in Italy until she was seven years old. She didn't speak English when her family relocated to Los Angeles and her struggle to acclimate to American elementary school made De Laurentiis a target for bullies.

In a 2011 interview with Redbook, De Laurentiis recalled how "kids at school tormented me. Truly, it was horrifying the names they called me, and the teachers never really did a thing to stop it." Like so many children who come from other cultures, De Laurentiis was teased for her name, and the food in her lunchbox. In conversation with Insider, De Laurentiis said, "when we moved to the U.S., we still lived very Italian lives ... We spoke Italian at home, we only ate Italian food — and let me tell you, back in the late '70s and early '80s, people were not as proud of their unique heritage as they are now".

One way De Laurentiis won over her bullies was through food. She built up her confidence by cooking at home and even found the courage to share her creations at school. "My classmates were like, "Wow. This is amazing, and that girl with the funny name cooked it!" she said to Redbook.

In December 2014, De Laurentiis got vulnerable in a divorce announcement via Facebook. She and fashion designer husband Todd Thompson married in 2003, and had been together since the chef was 19. In 2011, De Laurentiis hinted to Redbook magazine that a shift in power dynamics affected her marriage. "I think it can be hard for any man to sometimes be upstaged by his wife. So when I'm home, I work very hard to be Todd's wife and Jade's mother ... I try to be Giada, the young girl that he met 20 years ago and fell in love with. All men want to be treated like kings in a relationship ..."

The biggest difference between De Laurentiis "the young girl" and De Laurentiis the celebrity chef was independent wealth. She was on the cusp of fame when she married so there was no prenuptial agreement. This worked in Thompson's favor.

TMZ spilled the deets on the final divorce judgement in 2015. De Laurentiis would pay $9,000 in monthly child support and leave Thompson their $3.2 million Pacific Palisades home, plus $300,000 in art and furniture. She retained all rights to future earnings associated with her brand, but had to give Thompson half of the unpaid advances for cookbooks already in progress. The $2 million in the bank was split. The silver lining? Since Thompson made out with so much money, De Laurentiis wasn't obligated to pay spousal support.

One hot-button issue that has followed Giada De Laurentiis throughout her career is her close relationship with Bobby Flay. In her early days on Food Network, Flay was a mentor to De Laurentiis and the two formed a years-long friendship. De Laurentiis and Flay regularly collaborated on Food Network shows, which led to speculation that the chefs — who were married to other people — were maybe a little too close.

De Laurentiis has vehemently denied having an affair with Flay, but some of her behavior regarding their working relationship was rather odd. When they teamed up in 2006 to compete on "Iron Chef", a venture influenced by Flay, De Laurentiis took their subsequent loss so hard that she stopped speaking to him for eight months. She maintained that she took the competition very seriously while Flay treated the TV appearance like a joke. De Laurentiis eventually got over it, and continued to work with Flay on other Food Network programs.

In fact, it was their on-screen chemistry while filming "Bobby and Giada in Italy" that ramped up the dating rumors again. The series was filmed in 2019 and the chefs displayed some flirty energy — but hey, when in Rome, you know? De Laurentiis and Flay both got divorced in 2015, yet another tidbit that stirred up speculation, however De Laurentiis was linked to current boyfriend Shane Farley shortly after her divorce was finalized.

When New York Post ran a piece in its Page Six gossip column in 2014 called "Skinny Giada spits out everything she cooks" it saddled the chef with a reputation she's never been able to completely shake. The article called out Giada De Laurentiis' "everything in moderation" motto — the chef's answer for her trim figure — as being a stretch of the truth. According to a source working on De Laurentiis' cooking show, De Laurentiis takes a pretend bite of the dishes she cooks on TV, and once the camera cuts away, she spits the food in a bucket.

The source shed an uncomfortable light on a less-then-glamorous aspect of filming a cooking show, however, the accusation unfairly targeted De Laurentiis. A rep for De Laurentiis was also quoted in the article saying, "That is absurd and completely false. She absolutely eats her own food while filming ... Giada tapes sometimes three episodes in one day ... She doesn't always eat and swallow every time, since they can do sometimes six to 10 takes with three episodes a day, and that would be like eating six to eight meals a day." So yes, the spit bucket does exist, but it's not as controversial as Page Six made it out to be.

De Laurentiis has been famous for over twenty years, yet her effervescence hasn't waned. Watching her on-screen, it's hard to believe her presence can provoke so much public negativity — but it has. Reddit statements like, "She's fake AF. Saccharine sweet to people on camera or that she only has to spend a moment with, but demanding and rude to anyone she sees as subordinate in a work setting," or, "MANY affairs ... just watch one episode of the show with Bobby. Like get a room ... " and, "Her head is soooooo big!! lol," populate a single thread.

As an attractive female chef on TV, De Laurentiis has had to answer all kinds of questions her male contemporaries typically avoid. She credited her fit physique to a diet of clean foods, low sugar, and general moderation, but this didn't quiet harsh criticism of her figure on social media. She has also been criticized for enunciating the names of Italian foods, cooking unimaginative recipes, and was accused of cheating on her husband with Bobby Flay and John Mayer.

After decades in the biz, De Lurentiis has decided to leave all of the negativity behind her. Speaking on The Important Things podcast in 2022, she said, "I'm okay with who I am, regardless of what people think of me. And I'm okay with the choices that I've made ... I've sort of made peace with everything that's happened in my life, with my divorce, with anything that's happened."

When De Laurentiis found fame on Food Network, it was as a married woman with a wholesome image. As her star continued to rise, she repeatedly fielded infidelity rumors in connection with fellow Food Network alum Bobby Flay, or any male public figure she appeared to hit it off with — despite none of these supposed dalliances ever being confirmed. De Laurentiis separated from her husband in 2014, divorced the following year, and went public with new boyfriend Shane Farley shortly after. The circumstances of her post-divorce relationship kept the rumor mill churning.

De Laurentiis met Farley, a TV producer, in 2013 during talks of a collaborative project with Flay that never came to fruition. Reconnecting with Farley in 2015 had the chef head over heels again, but it's been suggested that Farley wasn't fully available when their romance began.

In November 2015, Page Six reported that De Laurentiis' boyfriend was still married. Court documents showed that Farley had filed for divorce in March 2015, and De Laurentiis insisted they didn't start dating until August. Meanwhile, the divorce lawyer of Farley's soon-to-be ex-wife Jennifer Giamo, stated that Giamo was devastated over learning about Farley and De Laurentiis' relationship in the press. In December 2015, Page Six alleged that Giamo and Flay's ex-wife, actress Stephanie March, had met at a hotel bar in New York City to commiserate over De Laurentiis' interference in their marriages.

Mario Batali was one of Food Network's earliest stars as the host of "Molto Mario" which ran from 1997 to 2005. De Laurentiis' show "Everyday Italian" premiered in 2003, so the celebrity chefs were colleagues. De Laurentiis considered Batali a mentor and the pair continued to cross paths professionally. In 2017, Food Network was gearing up for a "Moloto Mario" revival. That quickly changed.

In December 2017, four women lobbied accusations of sexual misconduct against Batali. All four women worked in the culinary industry. The allegations made an immediate splash in the media and destroyed Batali's career. Months later, De Laurentiis was asked about the situation on the Eater Upsell podcast. "I did not have those exact experiences with him, but it doesn't come as a huge shock ... We drink too much and sometimes ... I'm not legitimizing it by any means" was her response. She went on to stress the importance of women sticking up for each other and themselves. Clearly De Laurentiis had seen Batali engage in some form of misbehavior in the past, but she never went into specifics.

There's no question that Giada De Laurentiis worked hard for what she has, but her family tree is more high-profile than most. De Laurentiis' maternal grandfather is Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis, a film producer with more than 100 titles to his credit. He won two Academy Awards in the 1950s  as an Italian film producer and later produced films in the U.S., including classics like "Barbarella" in 1968 and "Serpico" in 1973.  His first wife, Italian screen siren Silvana Mangano, is De Laurentiis' grandmother.

De Laurentiis attended Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Paris, but it was her 2002 article in Food & Wine magazine about the De Laurentiis family's Sunday dinners that caught Food Network's eye. When the article was published, De Laurentiis was already making a name for herself among Hollywood's A-list. After culinary school, she worked at Spago, Wolfgang Puck's landmark restaurant in Beverly Hills with a star-studded customer base. In 1998, De Laurentiis started a catering business, GDL Foods. Her catering skills attracted some big-name clients, including actor-turned-director Ron Howard.

Nepotism helped De Laurentiis get a foot in the door with Food Network, but it was up to her to prove the opportunity was deserved. She quickly became one of the channel's most popular personalities and the success of "Everyday Italian" led to multiple spinoff series. De Laurentiis remained part of the Food Network family for 20 years.

De Laurentiis opened her first restaurant, Giada, in the Las Vegas Cromwell hotel in 2014. About a month in, a notorious guest darkened Giada's doorway. It was Pete Wells, veteran New York Times restaurant critic who has unapologetically authored horrendous reviews of celeb chef restaurants. When Wells' caustic impressions of Giada was published, De Laurentiis couldn't play it cool. "I spent two days bawling my eyes out," she told the Eater Upsell podcast in 2018, "he ripped it to shreds."

Under the title, "You Don't Need to Tell Them Giada Sent You," Wells took De Laurentiis to task. He scoffed at a server's suggestion that De Laurentiis wanted guests to feel like they were "in her home" inside a 260-seat dining room with wraparound views of the Vegas strip. He quipped that De Laurentiis' name and image were "invoked so often that it can seem she wants you to feel as if you're in her museum." Then there was the food. 

A "flaccid" bucatini was paired with "bland" sauce, and an over-processed margherita pizzette that Wells quipped, "might have come from the children's menu of any restaurant in America except an Italian one." As for Giada's signature chicken cacciatore for two, Wells said he was shown a whole-roasted chicken with vegetables that was returned as a plate of dry, cut-up chicken and tomato sauce which "seemed to have no relationship to the original bird." Despite the linguistic lashing, Giada remains open.

She's undoubtedly gorgeous, but she did not wake up like this. To prepare for her many public appearances, De Laurentiis calls upon the services of hair and makeup stylist Julie Morgan. She's been glamming up De Laurentiis for many years and is part of the celeb chef's inner circle. Yet for De Laurentiis, being camera-ready goes deeper than a great blow out and a peachy glow. She never slacks on skincare, exfoliating her face daily with a homemade scrub of baking soda, olive oil, and water. De Laurentiis also practices yoga, is a champion of clean eating, and keeps teeth whitener in her fridge.

Her interest in health, beauty, and fashion is something De Laurentiis has used to her advantage time and again. She's been a spokeswoman for Clairol hair color and a guest at runway shows during New York fashion week — she even modeled for one in 2014. Now in her 50s, De Laurentiis is a role model for aging gracefully. While discussing the topic of age on The Important Things podcast in 2022 she said, "So I'm not 40 years old anymore, that's okay ... But I feel good and I look good."