Rachael Ray stands by her decision to not have children.
The celebrity chef, 56, had Bob Harper on her “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” podcast on Tuesday and they bonded over not being parents.
“I choose never to have children. God love all the people that have kids,” said Harper, 59.
“Me too. And boy did I get bashed for it over the decades,” Ray added.
Both stars said they’re happy taking care of their pets as opposed to real humans.
Ray, who shares her dog Bella with husband John Cusimano, said dogs “never talk back” and “always want to hug you.” She also said having a dog “just brings you a ray of light.”
“It really gets you through dark days. For me, if I have the absolute worst day or I’m sick as a dog, the thing that makes me feel best is to go home and literally climb into bed under a blanket with my dog,” she explained.
Ray has been married to Cusimano, 57, since 2005.
The former “Rachael Ray Show” host previously opened up about her decision to not have kids in a 2009 interview on ABC’s “Nightline.”
“I think that I’m 40 years old, and I have an enormous amount of hours that have to be dedicated to work,” she said. “For me personally, I would need more time to feel like I’d be a good mom to my own child.”
“I feel like a borderline good mom to my dog,” Ray added. “So I can’t imagine if it was a human baby… I feel like it would be unfair, not only to the child but to the people I work with.”
When the interviewer, Cynthia McFadden, asked Ray if she thinks she’s “missing something” not being a parent, she responded, “I don’t feel like I am. I really don’t.”
Ray launched her podcast last month. On the debut, the entrepreneur shared details about her marriage, including that she and Cusimano “have huge screaming matches all the time.”
However, Ray said she thinks the couple’s fights are “healthy” for their relationship.
“I don’t know that we ever apologize to each other,” she further explained. “Eventually I pat him on his ass or he kisses me on the head, and that’s just sort of it. That’s the apology. It’s just sort of understood. ‘I still like your ass.’ ‘I still like your head.’ It’s kind of in that zone.”
Ray also revealed that she thought Cusimano was gay when they met, but he quickly won her over.
