Ina Garten and her husband, Jeffrey Garten , have the recipe for a long-lasting marriage. The pair first crossed paths when she was 15 years old and visiting her older brother at Dartmouth College. Jeffrey, who was a Dartmouth student at the time, saw Ina through a window.
“Look at that girl, isn’t she beautiful?” he told his roommate, per Food Network Magazine . Jeffrey began writing Ina love letters, and months later, they went on their first date. As time went on, Jeffrey wrote more letters to Ina, and she continued to visit him on campus.
“It was very fashionable at the time for guys to date women who were going off to medical school or law school,” Jeffrey told the outlet. “But Ina was sending me shoeboxes of brownies and making me sweaters. And all these guys who were after those other women — they were in my room all the time, asking, ‘What did Ina send you this time?'” Jeffrey and Ina tied the knot in 1968.
Years later, the pair briefly separated but ultimately reconciled. “Moving forward, we could be equals who took care of each other. It wouldn’t happen overnight, but if we worked toward the same goal, we could change things together,” she wrote in her 2024 memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens .
Scroll down to see their love story from the beginning: Ina and Jeffrey met at Dartmouth College, where he was a student. Months later, Jeffrey and Ina went on their first date, and she suggested going to a bar in New York. “It was a disaster,” .