Social media needs to leave Rachael Ray alone and respect her privacy

Rachael Ray recently released a video paying tribute to her late friend Tony Bennett. However, social media responded to the heartwarming video with invasive and inappropriate questions and assumptions about her health.

Ray is a celebrity cook best known for hosting multiple talk and cooking shows, including Rachael Ray and 30 Minute Meals. In 2009, she won the Daytime Emmy for Best Outstanding Talk Show for Rachael Ray. Additionally, she has penned numerous bestselling cookbooks and partaken in several charity initiatives, including fundraising to support the children in Ukraine. Most recently, she launched a new TV series, Rachael Ray in Tuscany, in which she takes viewers along on an exploration of the European countryside while providing cooking lessons on Italian cuisine.

Ray has been honest about having no formal culinary training and drawing inspiration from a wide variety of cooks and cooking methods from her family. Her honesty makes her more relatable as she whips up meals that the average person might make, and she isn’t afraid to share her successes and failures. While she routinely posts on social media and keeps up with her over 1 million followers on Instagram, it seems not everyone has kept up with her over the years. When she went viral in her recent tribute video, many began bizarrely demanding that she explain why she doesn’t look the same as whenever they last saw her.

Rachael Ray’s video sparks speculation about her health

Recently, Home.Made.Nation shared a preview of Rachael Ray in Tuscany, in which she told stories about her late friend and prepared to cook his favorite dish: ossobuco. She hilariously recalled how she almost “killed” Bennett the first time she invited him to her home due to a mishap with her polished floors. Fortunately, he survived and ate two portions of ossobuco, making him the “biggest eater of ossobuco” in her home.

The video was a heartwarming preview of Ray honoring Bennett through her show. However, instead of focusing on the purpose of the video and Ray’s emotional storytelling, the video was inundated with comments about her appearance. According to some media outlets, viewers were “concerned” that her speech appeared slurred. However, some comments denied that there was anything noticeably different about her speech, with one user commenting, “I don’t hear any slurring, but she has compassion in her telling of the story.” A similar comment suggested people may simply have been hearing the emotion in her voice, given the subject of the video.

Sadly, the comments about her alleged slurring weren’t the worst ones. Numerous users made comments about her appearance and started diagnosing her with a bevy of conditions and illnesses, all of which are pure speculation. The top comments on the post claimed she had a “mini-stroke” or “Bell’s palsy,” both of which can cause facial paralysis or weakness. Even more unacceptable comments accused her of being an alcoholic and intoxicated on her show. Most of the comments were not made out of concern but were cruel and meant to insinuate there was something wrong with her appearance. Some users also openly commented on her weight, hairstyle, and age.

Again, there’s no evidence that she suffered any medical event. She appears and talks as she does in her previous videos. Even if something did change in her health, if she hasn’t announced it, it’s likely because she wants to keep it private. Just because Ray is a celebrity doesn’t mean she owes anyone private information about her health. Obviously, she looks different since a decade ago when she was at the height of her career, but women don’t have to explain why their appearance changes over time, either.

Ray simply wanted to honor a special friend, and it’s hard to imagine how crushing it must be for her to look at the comments and see so many users completely ignore the purpose of her video while diagnosing her with conditions she doesn’t have. We should normalize respecting people’s privacy and not force women to have to explain and defend everything about their appearance, voice, and existence.