Rachael Ray's Unrecognizable Appearance In Tragic New Video Has Fans Worried

Rachael Ray's recent video for Mother's Day is being talked about amongst fans for all the wrong reasons. The famous chef shared a video to Instagram of herself opening up about her time as a younger person in New York City. She didn't have a dime to her name, and didn't want to ask her mother for money. She did a TV show called "$40 a Day" later down the line, which is exactly what she used to live on for a week at a time. While $40 stretched farther back in the early 2000s than it does today, it still wasn't much to work with.

"I always felt so grateful that I came from people that taught me how to buy dry beans, a few vegetables, very little protein, and to live on that for a long time," Ray said. "And I am deeply grateful for it. It has changed the course of my life. It's made my life what it is." She also praised her mother, in both the video and the Instagram caption: "She showed me how to make something outta nothing — and how to do it with love."

However, many fans thought something seemed off about Ray, and voiced their concerns in the comments. "Rachel. Are you okay? You don't look well," one person asked, spelling the entrepreneur's name wrong. "What happened to her? Wow!" wondered another. A third called her "Almost unrecognizable." Other people chastised these types of comments, noting how people change when they get older and that there was nothing wrong with that.

It's refreshing to see a celebrity so upbeat and positive about a tough situation she experienced when she was younger. Rachael Ray has a tragic real-life story, but she's persevered and become an inspiration to many of her fans. She's experienced numerous health problems over the years, including having surgery to remove a benign cyst from her throat. Before the truth about that procedure came to light, however, rumors that Ray had throat cancer spread like wildfire. Her rep, Charlie Dougiello, shut those down, claiming, "Rachael is the picture of health" (via People).

Though she isn't as famous now like she was years ago, it's not just her various ailments that seemed to contribute to Ray's heartbreaking downfall from fame. A fire destroyed her home in 2020, then a hurricane flooded her NYC apartment a year later. All of that, coupled with several falls Ray experienced, demonstrated the hurdles she's had to endure over the last several years. Thankfully, Ray hasn't let those issues slow her down from doing what she adores: spreading her love of cooking to her millions of fans.