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For decades, the De Laurentiis name was associated with the glamor of the film industry, but chef Giada De Laurentiis has taken it in a whole new direction. After a 21-year stint with The Food Network, the star has racked up a T.V. CV that includes “Everyday Italian,” “Giada Entertains,” and “Giada on the Beach.”
She has also put her name to a library of bestselling cookbooks, including “Giada’s Family Dinners,” “Giada’s Kitchen,” and “Everyday Pasta.” In 2017, she launched lifestyle platform Giadzy, offering everything from recipes and ultimate guides to travel tips. From a distance, it looks as if De Laurentiis has it all and is sitting pretty.
However, being entertainment royalty hasn’t insulated her from experiencing some pretty tough times. From the challenge of moving to a new country, to the attacks she has suffered on social media, here is the real-life story of star Giada De Laurentiis.
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Giada Moved To The United States As A Child
A picture of Giada De Laurentiis as a child – giadadelaurentiis / Instagram
Giada De Laurentiis was born in 1970 in Rome, Italy. Her parents were actors, and her grandfather was legendary movie producer Dino De Laurentiis. Food was an important part of their lives, and shy Giada, who didn’t crave her parent’s fame as a child, loved making pizza in the family kitchen.
Work prompted him to immigrate to the United States in 1977, and he didn’t come alone. Giada told Kerry Diamond, host of the “Cherry Bombe” podcast: “He brought all of the immediate family. We all follow the patriarch of the family in Europe or in Italy.” Giada barely spoke a word of English when she arrived and learning it was a challenge. She told Business Insider: “My family takes their culture very seriously, so even when we moved to the U.S., we still lived very Italian lives. We spoke Italian at home, we only ate Italian food.”
She Was Bullied At School
Head shot of Giada De Laurentiis not smiling – s_bukley/Shutterstock
School can be tough but for a 7-year-old Italian immigrant with an unusual name, it was especially hard. In an interview with Redbook, she said, “Truly, it was horrifying the names they called me, and the teachers never really did a thing to stop it.” Three years later, De Laurentiis told Parade: “I brought spaghetti Bolognese and Nutella sandwiches for school lunch. People ridiculed me for it, so I spent a lot of time alone or eating with teachers.”
Learning to communicate was even harder. Speaking English at home was banned, as the chef explained in the “Cherry Bombe” podcast: “I flunked first grade. So I was always a couple of years behind because of the language barrier.” De Laurentiis added, “It was very difficult, and it made me very insecure.” How did she win everyone over? “I’d bring things to class that I’d cooked at home,” she told Redbook.
French Culinary School Was Brutal
A picture of Giada wearing chef’s whites, taken at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Paris – giadadelaurentiis / Instagram
Giada De Laurentiis’ love of cooking led her to Paris and Le Cordon Bleu in 1997 but it was far from the dream experience. On her one day off, she had to wash and iron her dirty chef’s clothes — something she wasn’t very good at. A lack of French was another obstacle, and worse was to come. “They threw stuff at us — sauces, knives. It is a different mentality,” she told Time. When a beaten-down De Laurentiis asked her mom if she could come home, she was told she would be cut off financially if she quit.
De Laurentiis stayed the course and learned a lot. “It really prepped me for what was to come,” she explained to sheknows. “I built my confidence, I worked hard, and I asked a lot of questions. I don’t know that you ever win them over, but you definitely can work around it.”
Her Television Debut Was Awful
close-up of Giada De Laurentiis – Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock
When a Food Network bigwig offered Giada De Laurentiis her own show, she was told to have 150 recipes on standby. After working with her aunt, film producer Raffaella De Laurentiis, Giada was good to go. Except her screen presence wasn’t all that.
“The producers said to me, ‘You know, you’re a little bit standoffish on camera, so we need you to warm up a little,'” she told sheknows. It took another family member to help get Giada De Laurentiis to relax in front of the camera: her brother Dino. He filmed her wherever she went one summer, from shopping to visiting a dry cleaner.
“At the very beginning, I think it was dodgy,” she admitted to Kerry Diamond in the “Cherry Bombe” podcast, adding that it took around seven years for her to feel comfortable. “It’s hard to believe now, but it is not in my nature. I am a very shy person.”
She Was Blindsided By Her Brother’s Death
A photo of Giada De Laurentiis, her sister and their brother, Dino – giadadelaurentiis / Instagram
Giada De Laurentiis lived next door to her younger brother Dino, telling ET, “He was the person I turned to for everything. When something great happened in my life, when something bad happened — I would talk to him two to three times per day.”
During his twenties, Dino had a mole on the center of his back and never really bothered to check it out. “It’s not like he’s going to turn around and look at his back in the mirror,” De Laurentiis said. Tragically, he was diagnosed with stage four melanoma, and died in 2003 aged 31.
Although devastated, the loss turned the chef into a fierce advocate for preventing skin cancer, urging people to wear sunscreen and have regular check-ups. Had Dino done the same, she said to ET, “We would have caught it and he would still be alive today.”
Giada Had Fears About Motherhood
Giada De Laurentiis standing next to her daughter Jade – Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images
The death of her younger brother Dino in 2003 wasn’t just heartbreaking for Giada De Laurentiis. It also made her think twice about whether she was prepared for motherhood. The same year, the chef married Todd Thompson and the pair had decided they were fine with not being parents.
In a 2009 interview with Redbook, she explained, “I was afraid that we could have a child and lose him or her too. I didn’t know if I could go through that kind of pain with anybody else the way I did with my brother,” before adding: “But a few years later, I thought, If I never have a child, that might be the saddest thing for me.” Her daughter Jade was born in 2008, and De Laurentiis told Parade five years later, “She’s allowed me to love in a full way, which I think that had stopped when my brother died.”
She Was Devastated By Her Grandfather’s Death
Dino De Laurentiis with his granddaughter Giada – Rob Loud/Getty Images
For movie fans, Agostino ‘Dino’ De Laurentiis was a legend. For Giada, he was just grandfather. He played a key role in her love of cooking, from his pasta-making roots in Italy to the food stores he owned in Los Angeles and New York.
“He was very worried that I would ruin the name or make the De Laurentiis name something that wasn’t prestigious anymore,” she told The Cut. When he died, aged 91, in 2010, The Hollywood Reporter published a statement from the star: “My grandfather was a true inspiration. He was my biggest champion in life and a constant source for wisdom and advice. I will miss him dearly.”
Years later, the chef told the “Cherry Bombe” podcast: “I honestly always think to myself, ‘What would my grandfather say?’ Even though he’s been gone for a very long time now, what would he say? Am I going to disappoint him?”
Giada Faced Accusations Of Cheating
Giada De Laurentiis with her then-husband Todd Thompson – Jean Baptiste Lacroix/Getty Images
Life in the public eye comes with many pitfalls, as Giada De Laurentiis knows all too well. As her fame grew, so did the tabloids’ interest in her private life, leading to more than one rumor about affairs behind her husband Todd Thompson’s back.
One of the biggest landed in 2010, when Star magazine claimed De Laurentiis was being romanced by John Mayer. Both sides denied any hint of an affair, with Today reporting a statement from the chef’s team which said, “They are not friends and cannot even go so far as to call John Mayer an acquaintance. There is not a sliver of truth to Star magazine’s story.”
De Laurentiis spoke to Redbook about the story a few months after it broke, and said, “I was shocked, and not so much for me, but for my husband and family. My family is used to that sort of thing. But my husband’s family is not.”
Her Product Line For Target Was Recalled
a close up of a portion of lasagne, topped with basil – Jean Meyntjens/Getty Images
Celebrities have put their names to a wide range of products for decades. In January 2010, Giada De Laurentiis teamed up with Target to release lasagna pans. Available to buy individually or as a set of six, the 9 by 13-inch pans cost roughly $22 to $50.
They appeared to go down well, selling almost 150,000 units by October 2012. However, in April the next year, Target issued a recall notice for the ceramic dishes. It said: “Target has received 39 reports of the pan or its handles breaking or cracking during normal use. Cuts and lacerations were reported in six of those incidents.” People who bought one of the lasagna pans were advised to not use it again, and instead take it back to their nearest store for a refund. None of the other items in the six-piece set were affected by the recall.
Her 11-Year Marriage Ended In Divorce
Giada De Laurentiis and her ex-husband Todd Thompson – giadadelaurentiis / Instagram
Giada De Laurentiis met Todd Thompson while she was at UCLA studying anthropology. The couple tied the knot in 2003 and, five years later, welcomed daughter Jade. De Laurentiis and Thompson’s marriage weathered many a storm, including her rise to fame and false accusations of infidelity.
In June 2014, the chef opened her own Las Vegas restaurant, and a month later, she and Thompson had separated. By December, the pair called it a day on their marriage. Rumors swirled that Thompson felt overshadowed by his famous wife, and there was speculation about when De Laurentiis fell for current squeeze, Shane Farley. In a Facebook post, she said the decision to divorce Thompson came with: “A great deal of sadness, our focus on the future and overwhelming desire for our family’s happiness has given us the strength to move forward on separate, yet always connected paths.”
Las Vegas Chefs Questioned Her Talent
the menu board at Giada De Laurentiis’ eponymous restaurant in Las Vegas – 1000Photography/Shutterstock
Conquering the small screen as a chef was one thing, but establishing her own restaurant? That was a challenge Giada De Laurentiis tackled in summer 2014 by opening Giada in Las Vegas’ Cromwell Hotel– keenly aware she was the first female celebrity chef to do so.
“There aren’t really any female-branded restaurants on The Strip, so they’re all men, and I realized ‘holy cow, the pressure is intense,’ and a lot of people felt like ‘she doesn’t have a restaurant, she doesn’t know she’s doing, we’re gonna tell her what she’s gonna do, and she’ll be fine with it,'” De Laurentiis told The Meredith Vieira Show.
With that restaurant, the chef proved she had a tougher side too. She told Parade: “It’s not that I’m hard to be around, but this is not an easy life. Men say they like [a successful woman], but in reality they don’t.”
Nicole Kidman Spat Out Her Food On Live TV
a still from the Ellen chat show, featuring Giada De Laurentiis, Ellen DeGeneres and Nicole Kidman – TheEllenShow / YouTube
T.V. shows are a land of smoke and mirrors, and never more so than in live cookery segments. One awkward moment happened to Giada De Laurentiis in a 2017 edition of “The Ellen Show,” which featured Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman.
During the chaotic, six-minute segment, DeGeneres grabbed a slice of focaccia bread sitting on the workbench, followed by Kidman. “It’s a little tough,” she said, while De Laurentiis clapped back: “Nicole, it’s been sitting there for like five hours!” The actress then delicately removed the bread from her mouth.
It wasn’t the first time a live cooking segment had gone awry. She told the Toronto Star how, during De Laurentiis’ first appearance on “The Today Show,” host Matt Lauer grabbed a piece of undercooked chicken, before spitting it out. “I just stood there, trying to smile and he came back and said, ‘The chicken was raw, but the pesto tasted good. You can stay.'”
Giada’s Sugary Diet Put Her Health At Risk
Giada De Laurentiis in a green dress holding an ice cream – giadadelaurentiis / Instagram
It’s easy to think that many T.V. chefs eat healthily away from the cameras. For Giada De Laurentiis, her fans had no idea she was grappling with a dependence on sugar. She explained to CNN: “Sometimes it would be as basic as taking a sugar cube, dipping it in espresso and eating that directly.”
The chef said she used sugar to boost her energy levels, but found that, like a drug, it was a hard habit to break. During the “Cherry Bombe” podcast, she said: “In between shooting my shows, because the hours were insane, I would have a bag of chocolate chips in the freezer, and I would go for it.”
After feeling exhausted and being hit by multiple sinus infections, De Laurentiis’ acupuncturist suggested sugar could be part of the problem. After changing her diet, she was inspired to write “Eat Better, Feel Better,” a cookbook aimed at helping people make similar changes.
She Fell Out With A Food Network Co-Star
Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis at a Times Talks event – Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images
Giada De Laurentiis is a firm favorite among The Food Network stable of stars. But she hasn’t always been on friendly terms with some of her colleagues, as she explained on the “Beyond the Plate” podcast.
De Laurentiis first met celebrity chef Bobby Flay during a live cooking event in Philadelphia in around 2004. Fast forward a couple of years and the chefs were paired up again, this time for an episode of “Iron Chef America.” Rachael Ray and Mario Batali beat Flay and De Laurentiis, leaving the latter furious.
“We lost and he thought it was funny. He didn’t think it was any big deal that we lost,” she said, adding: “I felt like he sort of half-assed it, like he didn’t really care, it was just T.V.” Her response? De Laurentiis didn’t speak to Flay for eight months.
Giada Was The Target Of Online Hate
Giada De Laurentiis standing beside Paula Deen – Jean Baptiste Lacroix/Getty Images
Giada De Laurentiis regularly updates her social media followers on her latest projects, tells them where she is in the world and offers a glimpse of life at home. In 2023, an Instagram post showed her enjoying pasta dishes in Italy, prompting a few trolls to comment on her toothy smile.
De Laurentiis’ fans were quick to defend the star, flooding the comments with positive messages. One follower replied: “You are a brilliant chef and love your smile, recipe books, zest for life and a light for everyone! Keep doing exactly what you’re doing!”
It wasn’t the chef’s first or last experience of online hate. Back in 2013, she was targeted by stans of T.V. cook Paula Deen, who were furious that her T.V. shows were being replaced with De Laurentiis’, following a Paula Deen racism scandal. The Italian-American star refused to get directly involved, but posted on X: “@Paula_Deen Photobomb!!! Love this lady!”
She Was Accused Of Cultural Appropriation
a plate of Filipino chicken adobo – Brent Hofacker/Shutterstock
Giada De Laurentiis has always been proud of her Italian roots. Many of her recipes draw on them for inspiration, but she also enjoys rustling up dishes from other parts of the world. Unfortunately, on one occasion, that opened her up to allegations of cultural appropriation.
In a 2011 episode of “Giada at Home” called The Big Game, one of the dishes she cooked to eat during a sports event was Filipino chicken adobo. For blogger Sarahlynn Pablo and many other online, it was an insult. She took issue with the chef’s use of canned chicken stock, the unnecessary thickening of the sauce, and not serving it with a bowl of rice — but worse was to come.
Referring to De Laurentiis’ series “Everyday Italian,” Pablo wrote: “You learn a little everyday about Italian cooking so that after a while, I feel like I know a fair amount about their culture as a result. That luxury is not afforded to Filipino food.”
The Food Network Left Her Burned Out
A close up of Giada De Laurentiis – giadadelaurentiis / Instagram
Giada De Laurentiis found fame with The Food Network, with shows evolving as her off-screen life did. In the podcast “Superwomen with Rebcca Minkoff,” she said: “I would switch gears, without knowing this, every seven years.” She added: “I realized ‘okay, that chapter’s done, and I’m okay shutting that door.'”
When it came time to close the door on The Food Network altogether in 2023, De Laurentiis said it took her a long time to decide as she was frightened about the future. “When you’re a big fish in that pond and then you get out, who knows what’s going to happen next?” she told Minkoff. When the presenter asked if De Laurentiis missed her hectic former schedule, she said no, adding: “I worked really hard for so long, I got burned out and I couldn’t see a path that was exciting any more.”
She’s Had To Battle Her Own Stereotype
Giada De Laurentiis resting her chin on a table and holding a glass cloche on her head – giadadelaurentiis / Instagram
Celebrity chefs all have a T.V. image, from British chef Gordon Ramsay and Emmy award-winning Guy Fieri to Giada De Laurentiis. Ironically, the way she looked has sometimes held her back. “When you don’t fit the image people have [of a chef], it’s difficult to break that wall down,” she told Parade.
De Laurentiis felt a similar lack of respect when she opened her Las Vegas restaurant — the first ever on The Strip to be run by a female celebrity. Other chefs questioned how she could make the leap from being a T.V. personality to running this kind of business.
Those days of having to justify how she looks have long since passed. In 2024, De Laurentiis explained how she’s much happier with her image, telling The Bright Side podcast: “Now it’s way more relaxed, way more relaxed. And if my makeup isn’t perfect and my hair is, I’m perfect.”
Read the original article on Foodie.
