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Giada De Laurentiis Opens Up About ‘Rough’ Divorce

By Niki Cruz
Published on: 10:10 PST, Mar 23, 2016

Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis hasn’t had an easy time recently. Laurentiis has had a very public divorce battle with ex Todd Thompson. In the end, a judge ordered Giada to pay Thompson $2 million in the settlement in addition to $9,000 a month in child support for their daughter Jade. That said, now she’s found light at the end of the tunnel.

Before she found clarity, Giada was in the middle of a media blitz as her love life was being picked apart at the same time she was going through an already rocky divorce. Rumors circulated that she was with chef Bobby Flay, and singer John Mayer, but the biggest story out there was that she was having an alleged affair with the TODAY show host Matt Lauer.

At the time, Lauer denied the story by saying, “There is no truth to that story. From the horse’s mouth we have been friends for 10 years and more importantly I feel bad for what she has been going through.”

As the Inquisitr reported, Giada defended herself by saying, “My long-time friendships with my co-workers Matt Lauer and Bobby Flay are exactly that — long-time friendships. There has never been a romantic relationship with these two men.”

After the storm of publicity she received about her rumored love life, we’re hearing from De Laurentiis in her own words about what it’s like to have survived such a rocky divorce in the media.

E! spoke with Giada at the Triscuit Maker Fund about her split, and how she intends to move on from the relationship. She explains the difficult time as “a rough year and a half, no question.” Giada continued, “But I think that all of us go through stuff. I checked out for a little bit. I tried to stay under the radar to protect my family and my daughter, mostly. But now I feel like I’ve turned the corner.”

De Laurentiis has become introspective and delved into why everything was so hush hush. “I think that the pain was so raw for so long that I just felt like I couldn’t [even talk about it]. I think that everybody takes their time to get over whatever it is they need to get over.”

Helping her move on in a big way is a special someone. No, it’s not Bobby Flay, as rumored, but it’s Shane Farley, whom Giada has been dating since November.

This whole media storm about her love life and crumbling marriage has given the chef some much-needed perspective, and now she’s ready to dole out advice to those who will listen.

“Life is a big adventure and yes, there are curveballs that come your way. Take a minute. Breathe deeply. But if you’re healthy, you can get through anything in this life. You just can.”

Now that she’s finished with the divorce drama, Giada told E! that it’s all about having fun with her boyfriend and her daughter. Professionally speaking, the chef is working with Triscuit, and has created a very successful brand. The chef will also be shooting Giada in Italy in Italy for a whole month.

Continuing on with her sound advice, Giada says that it’s all about simplification.

“Sometimes I think we over-complicate things in this life, and it goes in everything that we do—it’s not just our food. We over-complicate everything that we do. We overthink it. But if we just go to the core of what things are. The core is the same for everything.”

[Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images]

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