Ina Garten went through a "really difficult" time in her marriage when she was trying to build her business.
The 77-year-old chef - who has been married to former government official Jeffrey Garten since 1968 - is these days best known as the host of the Food Network programme 'Barefoot Contessa' but was just trying to get her specialty food store off the ground in the 1970s, and admitted it took a toll on her realtionship for a period of time.
Speaking on 'Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist', she explained: "In the beginning, I'd go to work at four in the morning, work all day, most of the night, go home at midnight and start again at four in the morning.
"It was really difficult because I just wanted to build the business. Jeffrey was working at the State Department, and he would come on the weekends when I was really busy, so I was like 'I'm sorry, I just can't spend any time with you.'"
The 'Be My Guest' star eventually went to Washington to visit her husband amid their struggles, and insisted that he had to go to therapy despite his hectic work schedule because she thought it was the only way for their marriage to survive.
"We took a little time apart, we needed to do that. I'd never lived alone. He was great."
"He said 'Is there anything I can do to change your mind?' I said he could go see a therapist and then we could work through tose things.
He said 'I'll go after I come back from my trip around the world' but I said it would be too late by then, so he went the next day and it was incredible."
