Ina Garten And Jeffrey Just Revealed The Secret To Their 55-Year Marriage (2024)

Ina Garten and husband Jeffrey celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary on Friday by playing the "Not the Newlyweds" game to see how well they know each other.

"When Jeffrey and I were first married I asked him, 'What do you want for your life?' He replied, 'I want to be a good husband.' I’d say you nailed that," the Barefoot Contessa wrote on Instagram, before the couple launched into their twist on the iconic newlyweds game.

The couple, who tied the knot back in 1968, effortlessly matched each answer when asked who noticed the other one first (Jeffrey spotted Ina) and what they ate on their first date (coffee. Just coffee).

"I wasn’t old enough to have a drink!" Ina joked. Jeffrey added, "We tried but you didn’t have an ID!"

While the pair wasn't in sync on every answer—like Jeffrey's least favorite food, which he revealed as Ina's "really bad" fish stew—nearly everything else was a match. Jeffrey correctly guessed Ina's "basic life philosophy" as having "fun" while Ina almost hit the nail on the head with Jeffrey's basic life philosophy. She answered "happy wife happy life" and he said "Love Ina." *Cue the awwwwws*

Now, as for their secret to a "long marriage" (55 years!), Ina answered "marry Jeffrey." And he said "love [Ina] to death."

"I'd say that's a pretty good secret," she said before sweetly kissing her hubby on the cheek.

According to PEOPLE, the pair first met when Jeffrey spotted Ina out the library windows and told his roommate at the time, "Look at that girl, isn't she beautiful?" Serendipitously, the roommate just so happened to know Ina's brother.

"He saw me on the street and then sent me a letter with a photograph of himself in it," Ina told the outlet of their introduction. "I just remember running through the house and going, ‘Mom, Mom, you’ve got to see this picture of this guy. He’s so cute!'"

Six months after he first spotted Ina, the couple went on their first date.