NEWSRachael Ray Addresses Rumors She 'Disappeared' From Public Eye After Talk Show Wrapped in 2023: 'I Earned This'
Chef and media personality Rachael Ray addressed rumors she 'disappeared' from the public eye after her eponymous talk show wrapped in 2023.
Oct. 21 2025, Published 4:41 p.m. ET
Rachael Ray is clapping back at claims she “disappeared” from the public eye following the end of her eponymous talk show in 2023.
“I don’t know what they’re talking about,” Ray, 57, said in an interview published by a news outlet on Monday, October 20. “I work my a-- off all the time. And I never left.”
Rachael Ray Is Booked and Busy
'The Rachael Ray Show' aired from 2006 to 2023.
The Rachael Ray Show aired for 17 seasons, from 2006 to 2023. After it wrapped, Ray stayed busy by launching her production and distribution company, Free Food Studios, and striking a deal with A&E, which acquired a 50 percent stake in the venture.
“I just switched over to A+E and new partners, that’s all. But I’ve been working constantly. From the time I left the daytime show, I started writing. I write around the clock, and I produce shows with my friends around the clock,” she recounted. “So I don’t know why people thought I left. I guess we did a c--- job of promoting it.”
Rachael Ray Slammed Rumors She 'Disappeared'
Rachael Ray slammed rumors that she 'disappeared' from the public eye.
While juggling her shows Rachael Ray’s Meals in Minutes and Rachael Ray in Tuscany, which premiered in 2024, Ray said she’s grateful to be steering the course of this exciting phase of her career.
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Rachael Ray Divides Her Time in the U.S. and Italy
Rachael Ray is grateful to still be 'considered relevant.'
“To be a woman in her 50s and still considered relevant is cool, but to have partners that want to help me produce really focused work that I want to produce and support people that I want to support is extraordinary,” she said. “People have asked me for decades, ‘Do you feel lesser than because you’re a female in your industry?’ I never felt that way once.”
Ray and her husband, John Cusimano, divide their time between a New York City apartment and their Tuscany home, which they purchased in 2021. The country holds a special place in their hearts, having married at a Tuscan castle in 2005 and renewed their vows there a decade later.
Rachael Ray Always Wanted to Live in Italy
Rachael Ray praised living part time in Italy.
“My family is from Italy, and I've always wanted to live in Italy,” the chef said of their overseas home. “It's my life's dream. And I'm in my 50s. I worked my whole life to live there. And we have a huge garden, orto, and we make our own wine. We press our own olive oil. We have a freshwater pool so my dog can drink water and swim at the same time. I just love the peace of it and the smell of the air.”
