The Food Network star and her fashion
designer husband, Todd
Thompson, have split up after 11 years of marriage. De Laurentiis revealed on Facebook this evening that they did not arrive
at that decision in haste.
"After
an amicable separation since July, Todd and I have decided to end our
marriage," she wrote. "Although our decision to separate comes 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."
Thompson and De Laurentiis have a
6-year-old daughter, Jade
Marie De Laurentiis-Thompson, together.
"Todd
and I share a beautiful daughter together," the celebrity cook continued,
"and a lifetime of great memories that we both treasure more than
anything. We are so thankful for our friends and family, and really appreciate
the support in this time of change."
There was no
word on whether they had yet filed for divorce. The duo married on May 25,
2003.
De
Laurentiis, a Daytime Emmy Winner for Outstanding Lifestyle Host for Giada at Home, talked to Redbook in 2011 about
meeting Thompson when she was 19 and he was 20 and knowing that he was the real
deal—even though he was a bit of a culinary novice.
"He took a lot of flak from my
family," De Laurentiis, whose maternal grandfather was famed film producer Dino De Laurentiis,
told the magazine. "When he would come to my grandfather's house to eat
dinner, my grandfather would say to me in Italian, 'Who is this person
butchering his pasta by cutting it with a fork and knife?' Luckily, my husband
is confident enough that he never took it personally. He'd laugh it off, and my
family ended up adoring him. Food brings people together on many different
levels. It's nourishment of the soul and body; it's truly love."
Asked whether
she felt guilty because she's forced to travel away from her family so much for
work, she said that she doted on them both up close and from afar out of
"absolute love and respect," not guilt.
"I think
it can be hard for any man to sometimes be upstaged by his wife," De
Laurentiis said. "So when I'm home, I work very hard to be Todd's wife and
Jade's mother. I have no problem going back to those traditional roles. I try
to be Giada, the young girl that he met 20 years ago and fell in love with. All
men want to be treated like kings in a relationship, and I think if women don't
indulge that sometimes, their men are likely to stray and look for someone who
can give that to them. It's simple. It's not brain surgery."
Incidentally,
at the time of the Redbook interview,
rumors were flying that she and John
Mayer had hooked up—and the magazine asked her
about the aftermath of the story, which she vehemently denied.
"The John Mayer incident was
completely unexpected," she said, noting that Thompson was with her at the
hotel where the rendezvous was alleged to have occurred. "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. Todd was embarrassed that
his family in Michigan would see it and think, What is going on over there
in Hollywood?...What made it all even more surprising is that I haven't had any
contact with John Mayer in three years. You know how you'll briefly get
introduced to somebody? Maybe we chatted for five minutes, but I wouldn't
consider that intimate....I know these things happen, but maybe I was naive to
think that they are usually based on some facts."
She credited
her husband's support with getting her through a rough period that included the
tabloid cheating claims and her grandfather's death.
"He
knows I'm not capable of that," she said.
News Credit: E! News
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