Photo: Jim Spellman/WireImage
Rachael Rayand her husband are celebrating Valentine’s Day with a few laughs.
“Still got it ❤️🔥,” shecaptioned the post. “Thank you@paolaandmurrayfor capturing these laughs with my funny Valentine xo.”
The two, who celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary in September, are still smiling despite the many challenges they’ve faced since the start of the pandemic. In May 2020, their15-year-old pit bull, Isaboo, died; and in August of that year, their homecompletely burned to the ground, theresult of a fire emberthat came out of the home’s chimney and landed on the roof.
Their Lake Luzerne, New York, home was oneRay had designed from scratch15 years earlier and served as the set of her self-titled syndicated talk show during the pandemic.
It took them a full year to rebuild— and during that time, Ray and Cusimano, 54, leaned on one another to make it through.
“We balance each other, we always have,” Raysaidexclusively inPEOPLE’s 50 Food Favespackage last September. “We knew we’d get through this together.”
“John and I didn’t meet until later in life, and didn’t get married until we were almost 40,” Ray shared. “We knew who we were. We’ve always been that way, for 20 years. We don’t take it too much to heart when one person just has to vent or blow up. We’re very good at being quiet also, with each other. We don’t look for there to be constant chatter. And we’re very good with giving each other space to work on our passions. We’re kind of autonomous and I think, in many ways, we were more uniquely prepared for this pandemic.”
RELATED VIDEO: Rachael Ray Says She’s Grateful for ‘Being Alive’ After House Fire and Apartment Flood
But it was their ability to stay positive, even during the harshest of circumstances, that really helped them survive.
“When you’re left at home alone for too long, you start to lose a little perspective. You can get tunnel vision and think, ‘Everything’s revolving around us and our little problems.’ But there are so much worse positions we could be in,” Ray said. “I’m alive. I have a roof over my head. I have a job. There are people all over the food industry who have suffered and don’t know what to do. Not to mention the millions of people who have died.”
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free weekly newsletterto get the biggest news of the week delivered to your inbox every Friday.
“At the end of the day, John and I, we always come back to grateful. Some days are different than others, but we try to say, ‘Okay, here’s the new plan,’ even when we get down,” Ray continued — joking, “We’re likeMoonstruckover here. We just keep saying, ‘Stop your whining and snap out of it.’ "
source: people.com
