Ina Garten ‘Couldn’t Understand Why People Had Kids' After Her Own ‘Horrible Childhood’ (Exclusive)

Ina Garten’s upbringing was not something she wanted to recreate with her own family.

In his new memoir, Be ready when luck strikesthe Barefoot Contessa star reveals that her “terrible childhood” in Stamford, Connecticut was filled with emotional and physical abuse from her late parents, Charles and Florence Rosenberg. So, by the time she got married to husband Jeffrey Garten, she had long ago decided that she would never have children.

“I grew up in a family that wasn’t a happy family, so I couldn’t understand why people had children,” Ina tells PEOPLE for this week’s cover story. “No one in my family had fun. I understand that now, but at the time, when I was 25 and 30, I just wasn’t. It wasn’t anything I really wanted to do.”

Ina Garten Describes Split From Husband Jeffrey In New Memoir: ‘Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Done’ (Exclusive)

Ina Garten at home in East Hampton, NY

Allison Michael Orenstein

Ina writes about her troubled childhood in her memoir (exclusive clip in PEOPLE).

“My parents took a more ‘my way or the highway’ approach to raising a child, and any attempt to disobey was met with some pretty serious anger. Questioning what they expected me to wear or when I should do my homework was completely unacceptable,” she writes. .

“I was only three years old when I begged our nanny not to tell my father that I had done something he wouldn’t approve of because I was terrified of the consequences. When he got angry, which was often, anything could happen. He would hit me. or pulled my hair. I was trapped in a cycle of neglect and abuse, but still held to incredibly high (and arbitrary) standards.”

Ina reconciled with her dad (here at her wedding in 1968) after he “apologized in his own way,” she says.

Courtesy of Ina Garten

For more on Ina Garten, including a full excerpt from her memoir, Be ready when luck strikespick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

She quotes a saying that explains her situation: “What goes in early goes deep.”

“After my experience, my mind was closed to the possibility of having my own child. Jeffrey and I were happy with our choices and our lives,” she adds.

Today, Ina has no regrets. “Dolly Parton once told Oprah Winfrey about why she didn’t have children. She said, ‘If I didn’t have the freedom to work, I wouldn’t be doing all the things I did.’ I feel the same way,” writes Ina.

Ina Garten

Since we didn’t have children, we had more freedom to do other things in life

— Ina Garten

Ina Garten at 3 years old.

Courtesy of Ina Garten

She’s written 13 cookbooks, won six Daytime Emmy Awards for her Food Network shows, and built a loyal fan base who adore her for her approachable style and simple, foolproof recipes. He ends his memoir with a poignant full-circle moment.

“When I’m walking down the street, and someone smiles, leans over and whispers: ‘Ina, I love you!’ I always remember my father telling me, ‘No one will ever love you.’ It’s like this private cosmic joke for me. Whether my life turned out this way because I wanted to overcome my parents’ harsh criticism, but one thing is for sure, everything changed when I met Jeffrey just one person to believe in us, and for me that person learned to believe in myself.

Be ready when luck strikes is out on October 1 from Crown Publishing Group and is available for pre-order now, wherever books are sold.

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