Giada De Laurentiis is opening up about her decision to depart from the Food Network.
“It took a while for me to make this decision because I was very fearful of leaving Food Network,” De Laurentiis, 53, said on the Tuesday, April 23, episode of Rebecca Minkoff’s “Superwomen” podcast. “Because when you’re a big fish in that pond and then you get out, who knows what’s gonna happen next? But I really started to become interested in the entrepreneurial sort of journey. And I realized I couldn’t do both.”
De Laurentiis noted that it “felt like the world was crumbling” around her while she balanced her career, motherhood and her divorce from Todd Thompson, which she announced in December 2020.
“So about two and a half years ago, I finally was like, ‘OK, I’m gonna make the jump, and I’m gonna put my energy in Giadzy,” she said, referring to her lifestyle brand. “I’ll still do TV. I have a deal with Amazon, so I still do a little bit of that, but it’s definitely not the schedule I used to keep. Definitely not.”
When Minkoff asked whether she missed being on the Food Network, De Laurentiis replied, “No. I know, I should say yes.”
She continued, “I think it’s because I got burnt out. I really worked so hard for so long. I got burnt out and I couldn’t see a path that was exciting anymore. I need excitement. I get bored. And if I’m getting bored, my viewers are getting bored.”
While reflecting on her time with the network, De Laurentiis said she would “switch gears without knowing it every seven years.” She added, “So I did Everyday Italian for seven years, then I got pregnant, and I was like ‘OK, I can’t do that show anymore.’ I got to do a reincarnation of the show because I’m now pregnant. I’m a different person.” (De Laurentiis shares daughter Jade, 16, with Thompson.)
She noted that she was “lucky enough” to be at the network during a time when she could make suggestions about her projects. “The landscape hadn’t really been fully discovered yet, and so I think they were just more open to the talent,” she said.
De Laurentiis joined the Food Network in 2002 with Everyday Italian, and has since helmed shows including Giada’s Weekend Getaways, Giada at Home, Giada Entertains, Giada’s Holiday Handbook and Giada in Italy. She also appeared as a mentor on The Next Food Network Star.
After De Laurentiis announced her exit from the Food Network in 2023, a spokesperson for the network addressed her departure in a statement to Us Weekly.
“Giada De Laurentiis is culinary royalty, someone who has taught audiences how to properly pronounce every cut of pasta imaginable for nearly two decades,” they said in February 2023. “Food Network will always be proud of the beautiful content we have created together, and our table will always have an open seat for Giada.”
