Having children is a personal decision, and some people opt to never have kids at all, despite societal pressures to do so. One child-free celebrity is cook and TV personality Rachael Ray, who recently revealed that she was “bashed” for decades for her decision to not have kids.
However, she says she has no regrets — and much prefers having dogs rather than children.
On a recent episode her podcast I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, Rachael Ray spoke to celebrity trainer Bob Harper, and the two began discussing being childless. Ray says that she got some criticism over her choice to not have kids: “Boy, did I get bashed for it over the decades.”
But both Ray and Harper agreed that there was something better than having children around the house — having pet dogs!
“I put all that kind of unconditional love into my dogs,” Harper, known as a trainer on The Biggest Loser, told Rachael Ray. “What my dogs teach me on a daily basis is that unconditional love.”
“They never talk back, they always want to hug you,” Ray agreed, calling her pets’ love a “ray of light.”
“It’s that unconditional love, but it really gets you through dark days. Like for me, if I have the absolute worst day, or I’m sick as a dog — as the expression goes — the thing that makes me feel best is to go home and literally climb into bed under a blanket with my dog,” Ray said.
Harper brought up that he recently said goodbye to one of his beloved pet dogs, Carl, describing it as the toughest thing he’s ever gone through — even worse than a recovery from a heart attack. But he says his other dog, Vivian, helped him get through it, “because she was depressed, too.”
Ray responded by opening up about the loss of her dogs, Boo and Isaboo, who lived to be 13 and 15. “They were everything to us, and they both lived a very long life,” Ray said.
“It makes you a better human to have an animal,” Rachael Ray said. “I don’t understand folks that are not into having an animal in their lives.”
“Because it just makes you happier and better,” she continued. “And you have all this love in your life all the time no matter what.”
Ray previously spoke about her decision to not have children, citing her busy work schedule and indicating that caring for her pets was much more manageable.
“I think that I’m 40 years old, and I have an enormous amount of hours that have to be dedicated to work,” Ray said in a 2009 interview with ABC’s Nightline. “For me personally, I would need more time to feel like I’d be a good mom to my own child. I feel like a borderline good mom to my dog. So I can’t imagine if it was a human baby… I feel like it would be unfair, not only to the child but to the people I work with.”
A longtime dog lover, Rachael Ray has her own line of dog food, Rachael Ray Nutrish, proceeds from which go to supporting her animal charity The Rachael Ray Foundation, which started in 2016 and helps shelters across the country.
For many people, dogs are the only companionship they need. Rachael Ray chose not to have children, and some people unfairly criticized her for it, but it sounds like she has no regrets and is loving life with her pets!
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