Ina Garten bought candid about her troublesome previous and “very lonely childhood.”

In an interview, the Barefoot Contessa star recalled rising up in Connecticut along with her brother Ken and being afraid of her father, a surgeon who, she stated, would hit her and pull her hair if she disillusioned him.

“I used to be terrified,” the 76-year-old Meals Community persona instructed PEOPLE. “I used to be bodily afraid of my dad. I actually bear in mind pondering he would kill me if I did one thing. I used to be bodily afraid of him. And my mom was simply unsupportive.”

Garten continued, “If there’s a risk of violence, you’re at all times afraid, even when it’s not taking place. So I principally spent my complete childhood in my bed room with the door closed.”

“I believe it was simply safety. It was simply to maintain myself secure.”

Garten described her mom as controlling and speculated that she might need had Asperger’s Syndrome as a result of “she actually didn’t know learn how to have a relationship.” The dearth of connection between the 2 led the Daytime Emmy-winning superstar prepare dinner to deal with sustaining sturdy bonds in her personal life.

“Every little thing modified once I met Jeffrey,” she stated of her husband, whom she first met when she was 16 years outdated.

“I believe I overcame my childhood simply by sheer dedication,” Garten mirrored. “I simply wasn’t about to spend my life like that. And I believe lots of instances, folks decide to stay their lives in a different way, and so they find yourself sliding again into what they really feel is acquainted. I used to be decided not to do this. After which I met Jeffrey, and he simply confirmed me a completely totally different option to stay.”

After 4 years of courting, the 2 married in 1968. “[My mother] thought I used to be too younger to get married,” Garten stated, “nevertheless it was the primary time in my life once I simply stated to her, ‘I do know you don’t suppose it is a good thought. And for the primary time, I’m actually sorry to inform you this, however I don’t care. I’m doing this.’”

Garten additionally opened up about struggling bodily and emotional abuse from her late mother and father, Charles and Florence Rosenberg, in her memoir Be Prepared When the Luck Occurs, out on October 1.