Rachael Ray famously has a sunny disposition when she’s on camera, but the chef and television personality has struggled with some health issues behind the scenes.
Some fans thought that the cookbook author seemed like she was slurring her words or struggling to speak in a September 2024 Instagram video. Ray has yet to address the concerns sparked by the clip, but she has spoken out about other health challenges and injuries over the years.
Ray told People in 2006 that she hasn’t had “the strongest vocal cords” since suffering several bouts of croup, a viral respiratory infection, during her childhood.
Keep scrolling to see all the health struggles and injuries Ray has dealt with over the years:
Celebrity Health Scares Through the Years
1997
Ray was injured after being mugged at gunpoint in the foyer of her Queens apartment. She recounted the experience during a 2007 interview with People.
“This kid comes in behind me; next thing I know he shoves my face up against the door, jams a gun into my back and says, ‘Give me your bag,’” she recalled. “The whole thing was in slow motion. He dragged me down the alley and beat the crap out of me with his gun.”
A 2005 New York Times profile on Ray noted that she decided to move back upstate after the “violent mugging” left her “scraped and shaken.” A breakup and “a broken ankle” also contributed to her reasons for leaving New York City to move upstate, the article noted.
2006
Ray told People that her signature raspy voice is potentially the result of childhood illnesses.
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“I lose my voice a lot,” she said. “I had a lot of croup as a kid, so I don’t have the strongest vocal cords to begin with. I went to a voice doctor [who] taught me exercises for my throat and to cut back a little on the caffeine.”
October 2008
Amid rumors that Ray had throat cancer, her rep, Charlie Dougiello, set the record straight.
“Rachael is the picture of health. She is having very minor surgery to remove a benign cyst on her vocal cord,” Dougiello told People. “It’s a common in-and-out procedure that she will have in early December and it will not adversely affect any of her daytime show or Food Network tapings.”
July 2009
Ray underwent surgery to remove the cyst on her vocal cord.
“The hardest part for Rachael is going to be giving her voice a rest for the next week or so,” Dougiello told People at the time.
While Ray’s procedure was initially scheduled for December 2008, Dougiello told ABC News in September 2009 that the surgery was pushed back to see whether the cyst would disappear on its own.
“Her doctors felt that with some vocal coaching and therapy, they could reduce the size of the cyst and have it eventually disappear,” Dougiello explained. “She went to vocal therapy and learned techniques on how to use her voice differently.”
September 2024
In an Instagram video, Ray jokingly recalled how she “almost killed” Tony Bennett when she invited him over for dinner and he slipped and fell due to her over polished floors. Some fans grew concerned after watching the video, speculating that Ray’s mouth looked like she was recovering from a stroke or had Bell’s Palsy. Others thought her speech sounded slurred or weak. Ray has not addressed concerns over the clip.
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October 2024
One month after sparking concerns about her health, Ray revealed during the debut episode of her “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” podcast that she’d had “a couple of bad falls in the last couple of weeks.” She did not specify what led to the falls or whether she suffered any specific injuries as a result of them.
Ray did note that she loves being active and doing “physical work” like “helping carry in the wood” to her home in Lake Luzerne, New York, which she shares with husband John Cusimano, but hadn’t “been doing that in a while” due to her falls.
