From her tragic upbringing to the world of fashion to her culinary debut and beyond, here's everything you need to know about Lorraine Pascale — and why you haven't seen her on Food Network lately.
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00:00From her tragic upbringing to the world of fashion to her culinary debut and beyond,
00:05here's everything you need to know about Lorraine Pascal and why you haven't seen her on Food
00:09Network lately.
00:11Lorraine Pascal was born on November 17, 1972, at the Hackney Mothers' Hospital in London.
00:17Back then, she was Lorraine Victoria Brown, the daughter of unmarried Caribbean parents
00:21who had no intention of keeping her.
00:23At just six weeks old, Pascal was taken into foster care by Marion and John Byrd, a young
00:27married couple living in Leytonstone, a region of East London.
00:31The Byrds cared for Pascal for six months of her life, until she was sent to live with
00:34her biological father.
00:36It would be a brief reunion.
00:38Pascal lived with her father for the next six months, but when Marion Byrd paid a visit
00:41to Pascal's new home to see how she was doing, she was shaken by what she saw.
00:46Under her father's care, Pascal had become undernourished and unhappy.
00:50Her hair had fallen out, she had lost a significant amount of weight, and she cried inconsolably.
00:55Byrd placed an emergency call to social services to report her observations.
00:59Shortly after, Pascal was removed from her father's home and returned to living with
01:02the Byrds.
01:03She would remain with her foster parents until her adoption at 18 months old.
01:08At 18 months old, Pascal was adopted by Audrey and Roger Woodward.
01:12This was a heartbreaking moment for the Byrds, who wanted to adopt Pascal themselves.
01:16Unfortunately, because they had been expecting a temporary child at the time, they'd only
01:19signed on as temporary caregivers.
01:21The Woodwards raised their new child in Oxfordshire, giving her the middle name Pascal because
01:25she was adopted on Easter.
01:27Her new living situation was ordinary to begin with, but everything changed when Audrey and
01:31Robert Woodward got divorced.
01:33After the split, three-year-old Pascal and her older brother Jason, the Woodwards' biological
01:38child, lived with their mother full-time.
01:40Struggling to cope with the aftermath of divorce and life as a single parent, Audrey Woodward
01:44spiraled into alcoholism, and in 1981, Woodward herself contacted social services, insisting
01:50that the child be placed elsewhere for her own safety.
01:53As a result, Pascal was returned to foster care.
01:55She was placed with a highly religious family until she was 10, when she was permitted to
01:59live with her adoptive mother again.
02:01I'm grateful for what I've been through.
02:04It just makes you very resilient, it makes you very appreciative."
02:09Pascal was scouted at age 16 by Beth Bolt, the same agent who had plucked fellow model
02:13Naomi Campbell from obscurity in the mid-1980s.
02:17Before long, Pascal had become a bona fide 90s top model, regularly appearing in high-fashion
02:21editorials and strutting the runway for Chanel, Paco Rabanne, Calvin Klein, and more.
02:26Yet, while the early 90s aligned with the peak supermodel era, it was also a decade
02:30in which unchecked racism was common and accepted amongst the elite of the fashion world.
02:35At one point, Syncro, the agency with which Pascal was signed, shaved off her hair.
02:40Pascal hated the decision, but it did wonders for her career.
02:43She subsequently posed for the most renowned fashion photographers of the day, and while
02:47Pascal thinks the pictures are beautiful, she has also pointed out that the ethnic look
02:51was in demand then.
02:52As a Black model, Pascal rode camels and elephants into photo shoots, and she was often decked
02:56out in African-inspired jewelry.
02:59Despite her many successes in the industry, she walked away at age 27.
03:03During her days as a model, Pascal rubbed shoulders with celebrities and socialites
03:07on a regular basis.
03:08Kaz Belinsky-Unigil was one such character.
03:11He was a jazz musician who was comfortable assuming the role of an unaffected bohemian,
03:15but in reality, he was a Polish count.
03:18Pascal and Belinsky-Unigil married in 1995 and welcomed daughter Ella Belinska the following
03:22year, but the marriage was to be short-lived.
03:25In reflection, Pascal says that she married young in order to feel secure.
03:29After enduring a traumatic childhood and suffering through the high-stakes life of a supermodel,
03:33she longed to feel safe and grounded.
03:35Sadly, she and Belinsky-Unigil divorced in 2000 after a breakup so traumatic that it
03:40turned her hair prematurely gray.
03:42Pascal also said that her time with the count motivated her to further examine the trust
03:46issues she'd brought into relationships.
03:48Having grown up surrounded by chaos, Pascal realized that she often created drama in otherwise
03:53peaceful situations.
03:54I remember my therapist used to say to me, the thing is, Lorraine, when life is going
03:59calm and well for you, sometimes you just throw in a hand grenade.
04:03The silver lining to all this?
04:05Following the divorce, Pascal and Belinsky-Unigil were able to co-parent their daughter amicably,
04:10Isabella Belinska, now in her late 20s, is an actor, and she's as close to her mother
04:13as ever.
04:15Adjusting to motherhood and ready to transition away from model life, Pascal centered her
04:19focus on her next chapter.
04:21After trying out a few different potential careers, she enrolled in veteran British culinarian
04:25Proulix's School of Food and Wine in 2005.
04:28She left having specialized in baking and gained work experience at both the Mandarin
04:32Oriental Hotel and London's Hummingbird Bakery.
04:34Yeah, it's really, I just find it really nourishing and comforting, baking and eating.
04:39Hoping to get her foot in the door of a notoriously harsh profession, one in which women and people
04:43of color regularly have to fight for a place at the table, Pascal contacted renowned chef
04:47and restaurateur Marco Pierre White.
04:50She and White had become acquainted during her modeling days, and White agreed to help
04:53her build her brand.
04:54Pascal made her food television debut in 2008 as a guest on White's Great British Feast,
04:59on which he introduced her as Countess Lorraine Belinska.
05:01The BBC became interested, and in January 2011, she launched her TV series, Baking Made
05:07Easy.
05:08Not everyone was buying Pascal's latest venture, though.
05:10There were plenty of skeptics who suggested that she should stick to what she knew, modeling.
05:14But after everything Pascal had already overcome, she wasn't about to let others' negative judgment
05:19hold her back.
05:20Her charm and skill on Baking Made Easy won viewers over and led to further TV opportunities.
05:25It really is that simple.
05:28In 2013, speculation about Pascal's troubled love life hit headlines.
05:32Pascal had met music and film executive Jed Doherty at a dinner party in 2009, just as
05:37she was establishing a name for herself as a baker.
05:40They were together for years before getting engaged.
05:42When the engagement was called off, it was speculated that Pascal had ended the four-year
05:46relationship.
05:47Neither Pascal nor Doherty spilled details about the broken engagement, but insiders
05:51claimed that, when Doherty's career called him to Los Angeles, he invited Pascal to make
05:55the move to the U.S. with him, and she said no.
05:58In the years that they were together, Pascal's turn as a media chef in the U.K. was steadily
06:02on the rise.
06:03The string of TV shows on the BBC and best-selling cookbooks had given her a lot of professional
06:08legitimacy and momentum, and she wasn't willing to give that up.
06:11Pascal and Doherty were both saddened as they went their separate ways, and Pascal later
06:15admitted that her trust issues had once again contributed to the relationship's end.
06:19She married businessman Dennis O'Brien in 2021.
06:22Speaking to Vogue about their wedding, Pascal simply said,
06:25"...it was a perfect day."
06:28It isn't easy being famous in the age of social media, and, sadly, Lorraine Pascal's increased
06:33visibility made her a target for cyberbullying.
06:35In 2016, Pascal guest-hosted the BBC's Saturday Kitchen after longtime host James Martin stepped
06:41away.
06:42Scrolls of hateful tweets rolled in, criticizing Pascal's hosting and cooking abilities.
06:46Twitter trolls alleged that Pascal didn't know how to cook and talk at once, interrupted
06:50the show's guest, and had a dull on-screen presence.
06:53Pascal herself found it difficult to ignore this, and she tweeted quips back to several
06:57of her haters.
06:58She defended herself at the time, saying that she'd taken the high road with cyberbullying
07:02for too long, and had simply had enough.
07:04And she wasn't exaggerating, either.
07:06She had fielded hordes of online abuse over the years, much of which was racist and sexist
07:10in nature.
07:11In 2011, she was the subject of a tweet that included such a tirade of slurs that friends
07:16convinced her to show it to the police.
07:18Once authorities confirmed the tweet was sent from the U.S., however, no further action
07:21was taken.
07:23Pascal's relationship with adoptive mother Audrey Woodward has long been complicated.
07:27Despite their many ups and downs, Pascal was devastated when Woodward was diagnosed with
07:33The 2014 documentary Fostering and Me with Lorraine Pascal saw Pascal piecing together
07:37her experiences in the foster system.
07:40But Woodward, who was pivotal in that story, was too ill to participate.
07:43When the documentary was filmed, Woodward had already lost the ability to speak.
07:47She passed away in 2015.
07:49Pascal was floored by the loss, and even suffered from depression in the aftermath.
07:54Pascal has since revealed that she was able to forgive the physical abuse Woodward inflicted
07:58on her as a child because her mother was struggling to cope and needed help.
08:02She credits Woodward for giving her a strong work ethic and for instilling her with the
08:05belief that she could achieve her dreams.
08:08In the mid-2010s, Pascal's culinary career began to gather steam across the pond.
08:12Food Network thought Pascal would be a great addition to its Baking Championship series,
08:16and she jumped at the opportunity.
08:18As a judge on Halloween Baking Championship alongside Carla Hall and Zac Young, Pascal
08:22brought a playful yet candid perspective to the competition.
08:25She was also a regular judge on Spring Baking Championship with Duff Goldman and Nancy Fuller,
08:30and on Worst Bakers in America.
08:32Then, suddenly, Pascal ceased to appear on Food Network's roster.
08:39It was nothing personal.
08:40The culprit was COVID-19.
08:42Pascal wrote out pandemic restrictions at home in the UK.
08:45Yet when bans were finally lifted, she didn't return to the Food Network studios.
08:49Although she worked with Food Network for several years, it doesn't appear that she
08:52has plans to do so again in the near future.
08:55There's no doubt that Pascal has been through a lot, no matter how much she made of it,
08:59and she's certainly not immune to the residual emotional damage caused by her difficult past.
09:03She has often opened up about how the abuse and instability she faced in childhood has
09:08played a large role in the post-traumatic stress disorder she still grapples with today.
09:12It's a tough diagnosis, but in true form, Pascal refuses to let it defeat her.
09:17Pascal works through her PTSD with the help of therapy, transcendental meditation, and
09:21exercise.
09:22She is also embarking on a doctorate in psychology and holds public discussions where mental
09:26health and related subjects can be talked about openly and honestly.
09:30Pascal is also something of a life coach on social media.
09:32A huge believer in affirmations, she routinely shares the mantra she swears by in moments
09:36of weakness, anxiety, and self-doubt.
09:39Elsewhere, Pascal has said that helping people heal from traumas in their pasts is one of
09:43her greatest purposes in life.