Ina Garten Says She’s ‘Totally Happy with the Decision’ to Not Have Children (Exclusive)

Ina Garten has no regrets about her decision not to have children.

The author of Be Ready When the Luck Happens, 76, who has been married to Jeffrey Garten, 78, since 1968, said that “not for a minute” has she regretted her choice. “I think Jeffrey would’ve been a great parent but I don’t know whether I would’ve been a good parent or not. But anyway, I’m totally happy with the decision,” she said during a live Q&A at PEOPLE’s offices on Thursday, Dec. 5.

“I see why people have children, obviously,” she added. “My friends have children and they love them, and they have wonderful families, and I totally appreciate that. But it took me a long time to understand that.”

Garten was never pressured to start a family. “I have to say, even my parents never asked. I don’t think anybody ever asked,” she said.

“When I was in my 20s, when that conversation was happening, I just couldn’t understand why people had children because I had such a miserable childhood,” she said. “There was nothing happy about it.”

In September, Garten spoke about her hard upbringing, which included abuse by her father, in a PEOPLE cover story. She recalled being afraid of her dad, a surgeon, who would hit her and pull her hair.

“My parents had more of a ‘my way or the highway’ approach to child-­rearing, and any attempts at noncompliance were met with pretty serious anger,” Garten wrote in her memoir (excerpted exclusively in PEOPLE). 

“Questioning what they expected me to wear, or when to do my homework, was totally unacceptable,” she continued.

“I was only three when I begged our babysitter not to tell my father I had done something he would disapprove of because I was terrified of the consequences. When he got angry, which was often, anything could happen. He’d hit me or pull me around by my hair. I was trapped in a cycle of neglect and abuse. My parents didn’t believe in me or my potential, but they held me to impossibly high (and arbitrary) standards, nonetheless.”

Garten’s memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, is available now.