Celebrity chef Bobby Flay has had several wives during his time in the spotlight. Here's the scoop on Bobby Flay's ex-wives and any current women in his life.
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00:00Bobby Flay is one of the most popular celebrity chefs in America. He's also had several wives
00:05during his many years in the spotlight. Here's the scoop on Bobby Flay's ex-wives and any
00:10current women in his life.
00:13After authoring approximately 15 cookbooks, appearing on more than 20 Food Network shows,
00:17and owning numerous restaurant locations, it's safe to say that Bobby Flay is one of
00:21the most well-known celebrity chefs around. Flay made his first appearance on the Food
00:25Network in 1994, and since then he has regularly hosted programs including Worst Cooks in America
00:31and Beat Bobby Flay, in which two chefs come on to win a chance to compete against Flay.
00:36His professional life has been well-documented through his appearances on the Food Network,
00:40and his personal life has been of growing interest as well. Most recently, Flay publicly
00:44dated actress Helena York from 2016 through 2019.
00:49York is probably best known for a recurring role as Amy Breslin on The Good Fight and
00:53for her starring role as Brooke on Comedy Central's The Other Two.
00:56"...and Brookie, my little dancing queen."
00:59"...I haven't danced in 12 years."
01:01Prior to dating York, Flay has been married three times, with his second marriage resulting
01:05in one daughter, Sophie Flay. In addition to his marriages, Flay has been linked to
01:09several women, including Mad Men star January Jones and fellow chef Giada De Laurentiis.
01:15As his career began to take off, Bobby Flay married fellow chef Debra Ponzek in 1991 when
01:20he was 26. The couple got engaged over lunch at An American Place, a restaurant that was
01:26located in the Murray Hill neighborhood of New York City, after just a few weeks of meeting
01:30each other in 1990. Flay proposed to Ponzek with a pear-shaped diamond ring.
01:35Ponzek was an engineering student at Boston University before dropping out to attend the
01:39Culinary University of America. Flay studied at the French Culinary Institute in New York
01:43City. The two chefs met when Bobby Flay was working at Miracle Grill in New York City's
01:48East Village. Their wedding and reception were held at the Rainbow Room in New York City.
01:52The reception included a multi-course meal that was prepared by Andrew Wilkinson, who
01:56was the executive chef at the Rainbow Room at the time.
01:58It's like you're in a time machine being taken back to another time. It's the best room in
02:03New York City."
02:04For dessert, the couple had a vanilla and blackberry wedding cake made by Sylvia Weinstock,
02:08a New York City-based baker who has also made cakes for Donald Trump and Martha Stewart.
02:14After two years of marriage, Bobby Flay and Deborah Ponzek divorced in 1993. It didn't
02:19take her long to find love again, as she married husband Greg Adonizio in 1994. The couple
02:25first met in 1984 while attending culinary school together.
02:28After graduating from culinary school, Adonizio worked at the Pear Tree in Rumson, New Jersey,
02:33before opening his own restaurant, the Miramar Beach Inn. That restaurant was located in
02:37California, which became Adonizio's home for the next seven years. When Adonizio moved
02:42back east, he saw his former classmate doing a cooking demonstration on a late-night TV
02:46show and reconnected with her.
02:48Ponzek left New York when she married Adonizio and moved north to Connecticut. In 1995, she
02:53and her husband opened up O'Deally Says, a restaurant, store, and catering company based
02:57in their new state. On the company's website, Ponzek wrote,
03:00"...after settling down with three kids in Connecticut, our goal for the company became
03:04providing delicious homemade food made with healthy ingredients that was easy to bring
03:08home to your family."
03:10They now have four locations throughout the state in Riverside, Greenwich, Darien, and
03:14Westport.
03:15Bobby Flay didn't stray too far when meeting his second wife, as they both were working
03:19on shows for the Food Network when they met in 1994. Kate Connelly was working as a co-host
03:24on Robin Leach Talking Food when she came across Flay, who appeared as a guest on the
03:29show. Connelly, who was a single mother at the time with a son, went on her first date
03:33with Flay at the Monkey Bar in New York City.
03:35Flay said the fact that she was a single mother was one of the reasons that he was attracted
03:39to her. They were engaged a few months after the first date and married October 1, 1995
03:44at Flay's restaurant, Bolo.
03:46On April 16, 1996, Flay became a father when his second wife, Kate Connelly, gave birth
03:52to their daughter, Sophie. Sophie, now 25, works as a community journalist for ABC 7
03:57in Los Angeles. For her work at ABC 7, she's covered muralists honoring Kobe Bryant, Silver
04:03Lake Neighborhood Council meetings, and community fridges offering free food to struggling neighbors
04:07during the COVID-19 pandemic.
04:09In addition to her work for ABC 7, Sophie Flay is a contributor to Localish and co-hosts
04:15the show The Flay List with her dad. As co-hosts of The Flay List, Sophie and her dad travel
04:19around New York City looking for the best local meals.
04:22We just thought it would be kind of fun to do what we like to do most, which is go and
04:27eat and go to restaurants.
04:30Sophie has also joined her dad on Beat Bobby Flay and Brunch at Bobby's.
04:35Bobby Flay and Kate Connelly filed for divorce in 1998, just three years after marrying.
04:40Two years later, Flay met actress Stephanie March, who was starring on Law & Order Special
04:44Victims Unit at the time. March played Alexandra Cabot on the series and appeared in more than
04:4990 episodes. She even starred in a spinoff series, Conviction.
04:52Her acting career began in 1997 when she played Arlene in an episode of Early Edition, a TV
04:57show that ran on CBS from 1996 until 2000. March's most recent movie role is Deb Green
05:03in the TV movie A House on Fire, which was released in early 2021. March has appeared
05:08in numerous movies and TV shows, although her most notable role to date was playing
05:11Cabot in the Law & Order universe. She has also had minor roles in 30 Rock and Rescue
05:16Me.
05:17Unlike his first dates with his previous two wives, Bobby Flay and Stephanie March were
05:21set up on a blind date in 2000. The couple had their first date at New York City's Nobu,
05:26the famed sushi restaurant owned by Nobu Matsuhisa, a Japanese celebrity chef.
05:30Flay dated for three years before Flay proposed in December 2003. Flay popped the big question
05:35during the holiday season while ice skating at New York City's Rockefeller Plaza, which
05:39coincidentally was where his first marriage to Ponzac was held. He proposed to March with
05:43a princess-cut engagement ring. They were engaged for two years before the couple finally
05:47tied the knot.
05:48Throughout their time together, March appeared on several of Flay's Food Network shows, including
05:52eight appearances on Boy Meets Grill with Bobby Flay, Bobby Flay Fit, Throwdown with
05:56Bobby Flay, and Iron Chef America, the series.
06:00After five years together, Bobby Flay and Stephanie March were married on February 20,
06:052005 at St. Peter's Episcopal in New York City by Reverend K. Dennis Winslow. March,
06:10an alum of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, kept her own last name throughout
06:14the marriage, which lasted 10 years before they filed for divorce in 2015.
06:19The couple ended their marriage amid rumors that Flay, who was 50 at the time, was having
06:22an affair with his assistant, Elise Terrell, who was 28 at the time. Terrell worked at
06:27one of Flay's restaurants, Bar Americain, before becoming the famous chef's assistant.
06:31In response to the allegations, Flay's representative released a statement saying they would not
06:35publicly respond to the alleged affair. March and Flay had a prenuptial agreement in which
06:40Flay had to pay his ex-wife $5,000 a month.
06:44After filing for divorce, things turned ugly for Bobby Flay and ex-wife Stephanie March,
06:48as personal details about their relationship and marriage began getting leaked to numerous
06:52sources. One of the leaks alleged that when March had an emergency appendectomy in November
06:572013, Flay did not turn up to be at her side. According to TMZ, March had the emergency
07:01surgery after her appendix burst, and Flay didn't come to her bedside at the hospital
07:05until the day after her surgery. He also reportedly left before she was discharged, saying he
07:10had to work and offering to send his assistant to help his wife out as she recovered in the
07:14hospital.
07:15That wasn't the only time that Flay wasn't there for March, as they spent their 10th
07:18and ultimately final anniversary apart. On the day of the milestone event, Flay was attending
07:23the Food Network and Cooking Channel South Beach Wine and Food Festival alongside fellow
07:27chefs Giada De Laurentiis, Guy Fieri, and Duff Goldman. On February 21, 2015, the day
07:33after the couple's 10-year anniversary, Flay hosted Bobby Flay's Caribbean Heat at the
07:38festival.
07:39Following her emergency appendectomy in 2013, then a surgery to help her endometriosis one
07:44month later, March went under the knife an additional time to have breast implants. The
07:48surgery, which took place in August 2014, brought March to her knees, which she wrote
07:53about in an essay for Refinery29. In the essay, March said that while she had no problems
07:58with plastic surgery, the decision to get breast implants ultimately wasn't a good one
08:02for her. March noted that she only had the surgery because she felt like her life was
08:05out of control.
08:06March wrote in the essay,
08:07"...I was 39 years old and my life was disintegrating. Couldn't get a job I wanted on camera, couldn't
08:12get attention from my production projects, couldn't travel the world far enough or fast
08:16enough or immerse myself in philanthropy enough to make it all go away."
08:20She also attributed this feeling to her marriage with Flay falling apart, and having a difficult
08:24time coping with that. March said that she changed her body because she could not change
08:28anything else in her life, and that Flay was, quote, "...bewildered by her decision to have
08:32the surgery."
08:33Two months after her breast augmentation, March found out that her right implant was
08:36infected. She was on antibiotics for six weeks before having the implant re-implanted, but
08:41then suffered another infection in December 2014, when she decided to have her implants
08:46removed for good.
08:48While her relationship with Bobby Flay ultimately didn't work out, Stephanie March didn't let
08:52that stop her, as she continued to search for love. She found it just two years after
08:56her divorce when she married tech investor Dan Benton at the home that they share in
09:00Katona, New York.
09:01March was introduced to the investor a few months after her divorce from Flay, and their
09:05first date was at the Orient Express, a bar in New York City's West Village. Benton, who
09:09is 15 years March's senior, is the founder of Andor Capital, a hedge fund that shuttered
09:14in 2016. He proposed to the Law & Order Special Victims Unit actress while they were vacationing
09:19together in Greece.
09:20At the wedding, March wore a Dolce & Gabbana dress and borrowed her sister's earrings.
09:25Her best friend played the Star Wars-themed song on March's grandmother's piano as she
09:28walked down the aisle, as both the bride and the groom are big fans of the franchise. The
09:32wedding ceremony was followed by an outdoor luncheon at the home.
09:36After Bobby Flay and ex-girlfriend Helena York split in 2019, the famous chef admitted
09:41on his show Beat Bobby Flay that he's, quote, very single, adding that York, quote, kicked
09:46him to the curb. Flay made the revelations about his love life to actress Fran Drescher,
09:50who was making a guest appearance on his show.
09:52Flay fans were excitedly wondering if he had found a new love interest when he mentioned
09:56the name Christy in an Instagram video he posted in December of 2019. However, it turns
10:01out the Christy he referred to in the video is most likely his assistant, Christy Bach,
10:05who began working for the Culinary Extraordinaire in 2018. Before that, she had been employed
10:10by Mario Batali and had worked in the Delish Test Kitchen. It was a bit difficult to meet
10:14new people in 2020 due to social distancing requirements, and Flay has not been linked
10:19to anyone new since his breakup with York.