Jeffrey Garten is bringing the heat into Ina Garten’s kitchen.
The cook, 77, took a moment to gush over her husband, 79, on his special day.
“Happy birthday babe! I’ve been loving you for 60 years and it’s been so much fun. #lovethehair ❤️❤️,” Ina captioned an Instagram post on Wednesday.
The cookbook author’s post comes a year after she opened up about her and Jeffrey’s one-time separation and near-divorce in the 1970s. The couple tied the knot in 1968.
Ina was working overtime running the specialty food store that would later shoot her to stardom, the Barefoot Contessa, but Jeffrey “expected a wife that would make dinner,” she explained to People at the time.
“There were certain roles that we played, and I found them really annoying,” she added. “I felt that if I just hit the pause button, I would get his attention.”
Ina ended up leaving her job in the White House, where she and Jeffrey both worked, to run the Barefoot Contessa full-time.
The economist ended up staying behind in Washington, DC, and visited her in the Hamptons on weekends.
In her memoir, “Be Ready When the Luck Happens,” Ina revealed the dynamic shifted between the couple.
“When I bought Barefoot Contessa, I shattered our traditional roles — took a baseball bat to them and left them in pieces,” she penned. “While I was still cooking, cleaning, shopping, managing at the store, I was doing it as a businesswoman, not a wife. My responsibilities made it impossible for me to even think about anything else. There was no expectation about who got home from work first and what they should do, because I never got home from work!”
Despite the Yale professor making an effort to visit Ina weekly, she felt it pertinent to figure out what she needed on her own.
“When Jeffrey came on weekends, he was a distraction,” Ina expressed. “I didn’t pay enough attention to him. I just wanted everyone to leave me alone so I could concentrate on the store. Jeffrey was fully formed and living the life he wanted to live. I wasn’t, and I wouldn’t be able to figure out who I was or what I wanted unless I was on my own. I needed that freedom.”
The television personality contemplated a divorce but ended up asking for a separation instead.
“I thought about it a lot, and at my lowest point, I wondered if the only answer would be to get a divorce,” Ina wrote. “I loved Jeffrey and didn’t want to shock — or hurt — him, so I’d start by suggesting we pause for a separation.”
“It was the hardest thing I ever did. I told him that I needed to be on my own. I didn’t say whether it was for now … or forever. In true Jeffrey form, he said, ‘If you feel like you need to be on your own, you need to do it.’ He packed his bag and went home to Washington with no plan to come back. I buried my emotions and threw myself into my work.”
Ina told Jeffrey that he’d need to see a therapist if he wanted to reconcile. She had hoped a professional would help him see their dynamic as equal partners.
“One hour, that’s all Jeffrey needed,” Ina reflected. “He went once for an hour and totally got it.”
“Jeffrey’s willingness to see the therapist was as significant as anything that might happen during their session,” she noted. “He was that determined to convince me he was serious about making our marriage work.”
“Six weeks passed. We talked, we listened, and more importantly, we heard each other when we aired our concerns. Moving forward, we could be equals who took care of each other. It wouldn’t happen overnight, but if we worked toward the same goal, we could change things together.”
In the end, the longtime couple, who first began dating in 1965, came out stronger.
“Thank God I did [it],” she wrote. “I think how crazy that was and how dangerous it was, but we wouldn’t have the relationship we have now if I hadn’t done it.”
“It changed him,” Ina reflected, “but it also changed me too.”
