Former Food Network star Sandra Lee has opened up about the “heartbreaking” poverty she experienced as a child and the shame she felt when using food stamps to feed her family.
Lee, 58, the eldest of five siblings, shared more about her challenging childhood, which included raising her brothers and sisters due to her mother’s struggle with mental health issues and an addiction to prescription drugs.
“She just wouldn’t come out of the bedroom or get out of bed,” Lee recalled in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com.
“At the time, my stepdad didn’t even live in the state,” the star continued. “We were on welfare and food stamps and I remember going to the mailbox and getting that check.”
The TV chef was just two years old when she and her younger sister, Cindy, were sent to live with their paternal grandmother, Lorraine Waldroop.
Her mother, Vicky Svitak, who gave birth to her as a teenager, had three more children with a man who later became Lee’s stepfather.
Former Food Network star Sandra Lee has opened up about the “heartbreaking” poverty she experienced as a child
As a teenager, Lee helped care for her younger siblings and used food stamps to buy groceries for the family.
However, when the couple separated when Lee was just 11, she found herself taking on the role of mother to the three youngest children, even managing to feed the family, who lived in Sumner, Washington, using food stamps.
The chef shared a particularly harrowing experience when she was in school and had to pay with food stamps in front of a popular girl at her school that left her wanting to ‘die’ inside.
“I remember standing in line at the grocery store with the food stamps and it was mortifying to me, because the girl, she was like the popular girl at school, (and) her parents were a wealthy family (and) they owned the dairy,” she recalled.
Lee said he pulled out the food stamp book, which “came in like Monopoly money.”
“Nowadays it’s a credit card, so it’s not as devastating, but that’s the only way I can say it: devastating,” he added.
“When I had to take out that food stamp book and pay for it in front of the most popular and richest girl in school (and) have to do all that in front of this family, all I wanted to do was die. I died inside.”
Lee, who recently admitted that Ozempic “didn’t work” for her, also spoke about her love of cooking for her siblings and credited her grandmother for sparking her interest at a young age, after she and her sister lived with her.
“My grandmother was a great baker and she was fantastic with frosting, and that was her gift to everyone at her church. She made the wedding cakes, the baby shower cakes, and all the special birthday cakes, and she wouldn’t let anyone pay her for it,” Lee explained.
‘It was a joy for her to do and she would just sit there and decorate the cake and I just remember watching her, so when she wanted to play with things, the cheapest thing wasn’t toys, it was actually some icing and a piping bag with some nozzles.’
Lee photographed in 2007 with her four siblings: John Paul, Cynthia, Kimber and Rich.
Lee is pictured as a baby with her grandmother, Lorraine Waldroop, who she says first introduced her to baking.
Lee and her younger sister, Cindy, were sent to live with their paternal grandmother as children.
Of course, Lee can share his love of baking with his fans on his new Netflix show, Blue Ribbon Baking Championship, which hit Netflix on August 9.
The concept of the series is to find the best bakers from state fairs across the United States and have them compete for the grand prize of $100,000.
Lee credits nostalgia for the series’ success so far.
“The reason fairs are so revered and so beloved is because you go to them as a kid and you make memories there and have your favorite foods,” he says fondly.
‘And those are the things from your childhood that you love, whether it’s elephant ears or funnel cakes or whatever you love, and then there are new ones that are added every year that you have to try.
“When 45 percent of a nation’s population attends something annually, whether it’s a state, county or local fair, there’s no way it can’t work if you put it on television.”
Lee then revealed: ‘By the way, I hosted the Blue Ribbon Baking Championship on Food Network all those years ago and they didn’t buy it and I was like, “Are you kidding me?”
“It was crazy, I was the sexiest thing on that network at the time, and I couldn’t believe it!”
Lee hosts the Blue Ribbon Baking Championship with American Pie star Jason Biggs and also serves as executive producer.
Lee recently admitted to trying Ozempic to lose weight, but said it “didn’t work” for her.
In addition to finally being able to bring her TV show to life on the small screen, Lee is also an ambassador for The age of QVC possibilities platform where she defends women over 50 alongside figures such as Queen Latifah, Rita Wilson and Martha Stewart.
Speaking about ageing, she said: “I think what happens when you turn 50 is that you realise, if you’re lucky, that you’re halfway there, or even more. Your body is changing and you have to pay attention to all those things.”
Asked if she feels pressured to look a certain way because she’s on TV, the glamorous blonde, who turned 58 in July, said: ‘There’s a reason we all like to wash our face, put on lotion and put on makeup.
“I don’t think any of us are going to give up without a fight. I’m on Cher’s side: do what you want!” she urged.