Children aren’t for everybody, and that’s the case for Food Network star Ina Garten.

People reported that "The Barefoot Contessa" shared with with Katie Couric why she and her husband of 48 years, Jeffrey, decided  not to have children.

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"We decided not to have children," she said on an episode of "The Katie Couric Podcast." "I really appreciate that other people do and we will always have friends that have children that we are close to but it was a choice I made very early."

“I really felt, I feel, that I would have never been able to have the life I’ve had,” she said. “So it’s a choice and that was the choice I made.”

Though there is sometimes a stigma surrounding couples that don’t have kids, Garten said she never felt judged by her peers for her decision.

“I never felt that people did,” she said. “I think the one thing that we miss is a lot of people’s friends are the parents of their kids’ friends. So we never had that connection with other people that I see, that network. But no I never felt judged by it. Maybe people did but I didn’t notice.”

Garten also shared her own piece of advice when it comes to a loving and long-lasting marriage.

“The secret is that you just take care of each other and admire each other and support each other and you get that back,” she said, adding, “If Jeffrey and I disagree on something — he always agrees with me!”

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Healthcare at College Park, a nursing home in Fulton County, GA, stands shuttered with its door chained on July 26, 2025, having closed in recent months.  Researchers at Brown University developed a list of U.S. nursing homes they predicted were at risk of closing based on 2023 data, and would be at elevated risk of closing due to the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act's cuts to Medicaid. Healthcare at College Park was on their list.  It survived past its last federal inspection in August of 2024 but has now closed down. The bill's biggest provisions will roll out over years starting Jan. 1. (Ariel Hart/AJC)

Credit: Ariel Hart