Rachael Ray lost almost everything in her home in Upstate New York back in 2020 in a devastating fire. And while her home was being rebuilt, she and her husband John Cusimano stayed in her guest house temporarily.

However, the process of rebuilding her home did not come easy. It took a year to finish and finally, Rachael is just now getting back into the house.

Recently, she shared how she lost a lot during the housefire. She said, “We lost a huge part of the physical evidence that we exist, all of the things we had created — paintings and pictures and music, plus everything we were gifted over the years or collected together as a couple;

Paintings that were made for us and letters that were written to us. ” She added, “The entire property was gone. There was nothing. It was literally a hole in the ground.

It was considered a 100% loss. And they cleared away the entire, everything. Took it all. ”

She shared that she also lost a lot from her mom. “My mom is technically blind now, she’s 87, and I had decades of letters and cards from her. That was the first thing that hit me: ‘Oh my God, I lost those things.’ Not the stuff, but the things that we all hold on to that are our nostalgia and our personal history.”

Thankfully, Rachael says that even though she is missing a lot of things, the house is whole again. “It is rebuilt. It was a hole in the ground. It was taken down to the foundation basement.

When I was shooting the beginning of season 15, I was watching — from out of the window of what used to be our guesthouse for friends — them truck away our lives.”

After the tragic incident happened, Ray has shared much of the heartbreak with her fans. She says that one of the hardest parts of losing the house came much later. She says, “Do you know, it’s the opposite? I’m telling you, it really weirded me out. It was harder to walk in when they first finished rebuilding.”

She recalls, “The first time I walked in and just saw all of those white walls, I was a basket case. Because when you look at the walls you see everything that was there in front of you like you’re watching a movie.

Like vividly. And that was weird and hard. I could just not separate reality from… what was my life… It was easier to just see it gone than to look.”

But she says that the hardships of the last year have also brought her closer to her neighbors and her fans.

She said, “I feel that the connection that we made with people during this time, the loss of [our dog] Isaboo, the loss of our home, it meant so much to me. I became obsessed with our connection to the community that has tried to love and support us.”

She also shared that she takes the time to read as many letters as she can every week. She even handwrites the responses and sends around 50 or so in some weeks. The fire took a lot from Rachael Ray but thankfully, it is finally rebuilt and she and her husband have already moved back into their home.

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