Giada De Laurentiis said her recent divorce and the hard year that followed gave her a new appreciation for cooking.
In a new interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the 44-year-old Food Network star said her split from husband Todd Thompson last summer brought about "huge change" for her and daughter Jade Marie.
“It brought sadness and self-doubt. I found myself revisiting why I ever got into cooking,” De Laurentiis said while promoting her latest cookbook, Happy Cooking: Make Every Meal Count...Without Stressing Out.
The celeb chef -- who finalized her divorce from Thompson after 11 years of marriage in September -- said that ultimately, cooking “was a way for me to find myself again, find a comfort zone and shut out the noise of the world.”
De Laurentiis also told Philly.com recently that the intro of the new cookbook includes some commentary about her divorce.
"I wanted to tell people why I wrote this book," she told the site. "If you're a celebrity, you want to keep it all to yourself, but if someone reads that introduction and it helps them out and makes them smile for a second, that's my job."
De Laurentiis met her ex when she was in college and the two married in 2003. They welcomed daughter Jade in 2008. The couple announced their separation on Facebook last December, with De Laurentiis telling fans, "Todd and I share a beautiful daughter and a lifetime of great memories that we both treasure more than anything."
Late last month, the the Emmy Award-winning Food Network star shared a sweet photo of the family enjoying a day at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California.
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