Wedding rings symbolize a couple’s unbreakable bond and their commitment to one another.
But just because a couple removes their rings doesn’t mean their relationship is bound to fail.
Rachael Ray, who has been married to her husband for 16 years, doesn’t wear her wedding rings. And for very good reason!
Ray and her husband John Cusimano first met at a mutual friend’s party.
She recalled her first date with Cusimano.
He told me what he had made himself for dinner the night before, and I assumed that if you’re not a chef and you made what he told me he made, that he was gay. So I was going to set him up with a friend of mine—another handsome Italian man—and he said, “Oh, I’m not gay!” So we stayed out until 4 in the morning that really was our first date.
From there the couple’s relationship continued to grow, and after they had been together for six years Cusimano proposed. Ray admitted she thought they would never get married because they never spoke about marriage.
Ray was reportedly crying about their apartment, which was under construction and wouldn’t be finished in time for when their families arrived for the holidays.
“I just wanted her to stop crying, so I threw the ring at her head. It was in a blue box — and she thought it was a keyring because we just got this new apartment — and it wasn’t. She screamed and I said something which at the time I thought was very charming, but I have no idea what I said,” he said.
The couple married in 2005 in Tuscany.
Ray had a platinum set of rings, the engagement ring and wedding ring, but she found it was nearly impossible to cook with them on.
“Unfortunately, I cook so much and platinum is such a fine metal that it burned my hand and my hand was so scarred, we couldn’t hide it with makeup or powder,” she said. “It just kept cooking my hand, so I had to get cheaper metal. I had to get a soft gold ring.”
The couple ventured away from the traditional look and went with matching black diamond rings.
Even though they got new rings, Ray kept her old ones close by.
“I kept my ring set with me all the time because I’m superstitious, and if I died in a plane crash, I wanted my rings with me. Isn’t that crazy?”
She kept her rings in her wallet, so when her wallet was stolen, her rings were gone.
“So that person had a big cash day.”
“And then the following Valentine’s Day, even though John knows I will never wear them ever in my life, he regifted me the engagement ring — which is now gone because it was in our house that burned down.”
In August 2020, Ray and Cusimano’s primary home in New York burned to the ground.
“On August 9th, my house burned. 15 years of memories; 40 years of notebooks, drawings, thoughts, my life’s work,” she said on her show, according to USA Today.
Among the things she lost in the fire were her new engagement ring.
“I’m 0 for 3 with engagement rings, everybody! Good for me!” John said.
Despite the couple having possibly the worst luck with rings, they’re still deeply in love. This September they will celebrate 17 years of marriage.
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