Food icon Ina Garten reveals brief split from husband Jeffrey: 'Hardest thing I ever did'

Food icon Ina Garten has spoken about briefly separating from her husband Jeffery early on in her career.

The "Barefoot Contessa" said she struggled with the traditional role expected of her in the marriage.

Garten, 76, spoke to People ahead of the release of her memoir Be Ready When the Luck Happens.

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Garten had just opened her first specialty food store in the Hamptons when they found themselves questioning traditional marriage roles.

"When I bought Barefoot Contessa, I shattered our traditional roles –­ took a baseball bat to them and left them in pieces," she wrote in her memoir which is out on October 1.

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"While I was still cooking, cleaning, shopping, managing at the store, I was doing it as a businesswoman, not a wife," she said.

"My responsibilities made it impossible for me to even think about anything else. There was no expectation about who got home from work first and what they should do, because I never got home from work!"

"When Jeffrey came on weekends, he was a distraction. I didn't pay enough attention to him. I just wanted everyone to leave me alone so I could concentrate on the store. Jeffrey was fully formed and living the life he wanted to live. I wasn't, and I wouldn't be able to figure out who I was or what I wanted unless I was on my own. I needed that freedom."

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She told PEOPLE during an interview her husband also questioned how much he was travelling.

They eventually reunited and decided to give each other the freedom to live how they each wanted to live.

"I think we just negotiated a different kind of relationship which was much more of a partnership than it was a traditional relationship," she explained.

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She described her husband of 56-years as being "such a kind, supportive, positive and constantly kind of adoring guy."

"It's just been wonderful," she continued. "Absolute 180 degrees from how I grew up where everything I did was wrong and now everything I do is right."

Garten found fame as a TV cook and author after running a successful specialty food store. She has written several cook books and is famous for her Perfect Roast Chicken and Weekend Bolognese.

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