Ina and Jeffrey Garten celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary.Photo:Ina Garten/Instagram
Ina Garten/Instagram
InaandJeffrey Gartennailed “Not the Newlyweds Game.”
Jeffrey, 77, who is the Dean Emeritus at the Yale School of Management, was the first to spot theBarefoot Contessahost. Ina, 75, and Jeffrey laughed while reminiscing on their initial meeting, when she was 16 and in high school and he was an 18-year-old Dartmouth student.
“I wasn’t old enough to have a drink!” theBe My Guest with Ina Gartenhost said in the clip. Jeffrey added, “We tried but you didn’t have an ID!”
“That was the only failure you’ve ever had,” Jeffrey said lightheartedly. Ina replied: “That’s right, I made a really bad fish stew once.”
For deeper questions, the two were in sync. Both knew that the cookbook author’s “basic life philosophy” is to “have fun.” When asked about Jeffrey’s “basic life philosophy,” she answered, “happy wife happy life.” Jeffrey’s answer was sweetly similar: “Love Ina.”
Ina and Jeffrey celebrated their 55th anniversary on Dec. 22.Christopher Testani
“What’s Ina’s secret to a long marriage?” was next. Jeffrey answered, “love me to death” and Ina wrote, “marry Jeffrey!”
When asked about Jeffrey’s secret to a long marriage, the answers were the same: He said, “love Ina to death” and Ina answered, “love me!”
“I’d say that’s a pretty good secret,” she said, before giving Jeffrey a kiss on the cheek.
According toFood Network Magazine, their initial connection was serendipitous. Jeffrey was gazing out the library window at the time and he said to his roommate, “Look at that girl, isn’t she beautiful?” His roommate knew her brother and helped make the connection.
The couple wed in 1968 in an intimate backyard wedding.
“He saw me on the street and thensent me a letterwith a photograph of himself in it,” Ina told PEOPLE. “I just remember running through the house and going, ‘Mom, Mom, you’ve got to see this picture of this guy. He’s so cute!'”
Six months after laying eyes on her, Jeffrey showed up at her house to take her out on a date.
After their coffee-fueled first date, they dated for five years before getting married in her parents’ backyard in Connecticut when she was 20 and he was 22 in 1968.
From 1968 to 1972 Jeffreyserved as a lieutenantin the 82nd Airborne Division, a captain in the U.S. Army Special Forces and an advisor to the Royal Thai Army. He was deployed shortly after they got married but always kept his newlywed top of mind, writing to Ina “every single day,” he shared with PEOPLE.
Ina and Jeffrey Garten took a four month camping trip through Europe.Ina Garten Instagram
They were able to make some memories together during those early years of marriage. After Jeffrey had been stationed with the Army in Thailand for a year, the couple purchased $99 round-trip student tickets to Paris in 1971. While on a four-month camping trip with her husband, Ina tried the classic French stew and says that is what motivated her to learn to cook.
source: people.com
