dpAll eyes are on Rachael Ray after the cooking personality shared a new video on Instagram this week.
In the video, Ray teaches fans how to properly season food when cooking. However, viewers seemed more fixated with the way she looked — claiming she looked different, and not in a good way.
“I didn’t even recognize her,” wrote one fan in the comment section.
“Holy crap I didn’t recognize who it was until I read the name,” said another.
“What is going on here, wellness check,” opined another.
“Did something happen to her?” asked a fourth.
However, a few fans came to her defense. “Y’all people are so Unkind! She is wonderful!” wrote one supporter.
“People. Sometimes keep your thoughts to yourselves. There’s no reason to be mean,” said another.
A third wrote: “She aged.. She’s had some health issues as well. What’s weird is people don’t know what aging is because everyone gets 100 surgeries and looks fake.”
Another added, “All the nasty ignorant, hateful comments. You’d think they never saw someone gain a little weight before.”
The past few years haven’t been easy for the beloved TV chef. In December 2025, Ray revealed to Yahoo! that her mother passed away and it would be her first holiday without her.
“It’s just not the happiest of holidays this year, but still one I’m filled with nothing but gratitude for,” she told the outlet. “It’s just a weird time of year to be without her.”
And in August 2020, Ray and her husband John Cusimano lost their home in Lake Luzerne, New York, after it was destroyed in a fire.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about the incident, Ray said: “We lost a huge part of the physical evidence that we exist, all of the things we had created — paintings and pictures and music, plus everything we were gifted over the years or collected together as a couple; paintings that were made for us and letters that were written to us.”
This also isn’t the first time fans were concerned about Ray’s appearance.
In a video she shared for Mother’s Day last year, fans voiced similar concerns: “Rachael. Are you okay? You don’t look well,” wrote one fan.
“Omg I didn’t even know who that was. Yikes what happened to Rachael,” read another. In fact, numerous other commenters echoed that they had a difficult time recognizing her.
“She’s slurring her words,” a third person pointed out.
Ray has kept her health private over the years. The only time details regarding Ray’s health surfaced in 2008 when rumors swirled that she was having surgery for throat cancer. Her rep, Charlie Dougiello, quickly set the record straight, telling People: “Rachael is the picture of health. She is having very minor surgery to remove a benign cyst on her vocal cord.”
She had the procedure the following year. The topic of her vocal cords hasn’t been publicly discussed since.
