The Truth About Bobby Flay's Ex-Wives

Most known for his slew of Food Network shows, Bobby Flay is the epitome of a celebrity chef. In addition to his numerous television and film appearances, primarily on the Food Network but also most recently appearing as Fred Jones' uncle in a 2018 Scooby Doo movie, he has owned a score of restaurants throughout the country and written several cookbooks.

For the past few years, Flay has been thought of by some as a ladies' man, it's a reputation that grows because of the amount of wives he has had and the women he has been linked to. There have been several celebrities that have allegedly been dated the famous chef, but in addition to all of his rumored and confirmed girlfriends, he's also been married three times, with his first marriage lasting just two years, his second resulting in the birth of his only child and his third ending in 2015 after 15 years together.

As his career began to take off, Bobby Flay married fellow chef Debra Ponzek in 1991, when he was 26. The couple got engaged over lunch at An American Place, a restaurant that was located in the Murray Hill neighborhood of New York City, after just a few weeks of meeting each other in 1990, and he proposed with a pear-shaped diamond ring.

Ponzek was an engineering student at Boston University before dropping out to attend the Culinary University of America. Flay studied at the French Culinary Institute in New York City.

The two chefs met when Bobby Flay was working at Miracle Grill, in New York City's East Village, but by the time they were married he had opened up his flagship restaurant, Mesa Grill, which closed its New York location in 2013.

Their wedding and reception were held at the Rainbow Room in New York City, according to a New York Times article, and included a multi-course meal served to the approximately 225 guests of the wedding was prepared by Andrew Wilkinson, who was the executive chef at the Rainbow Room at the time. For dessert, the couple had a vanilla and blackberry wedding cake made by Sylvia Weinstock, a New York City-based baker who has also made cakes for Donald Trump and Martha Stewart, according to a profile by The Times of Israel.

After two years of marriage, Bobby Flay and Debra Ponzek divorced in 1993. It didn't take her long to find love again, as she married husband Greg Addonizio in April of 1995. The couple first met in 1984 while attending culinary school together.

After graduating from culinary school, Addonizio worked at The Pear Tree in Rumson, NJ, then Lavanos Restaurant in White Plains, NY before opening his own restaurant The Miramar Beach Inn in California, where he lived for seven years. When he moved back east, he saw his former classmate doing a cooking demonstration on a late-night TV show and reconnected with her.

Ponzek left New York when she married Addonizio and moved north to Connecticut. In 1995, she and her husband opened up Aux Delices, a restaurant, store and catering company based in their new state.

"After settling down with three kids in [Connecticut], it became apparent to us that many busy families (much like our own) often found it hard to consistently provide home-cooked meals while our kids were participating in all sorts of activities after school," Ponzek wrote on her company's website. "Our goal became providing delicious homemade food, made with healthy ingredients, that was easy to bring home to your family."

They now have four locations throughout the state in Riverside, Greenwich, Darien, and Westport.

Bobby Flay became a stepfather when he married second wife Kate Connelly in 1995, and then he became a father one year later when Connelly gave birth to daughter Sophie on April 16,1996 (via Delish).

Sophie, now 24, works as a community journalist for ABC7 in Los Angeles. For her work at ABC7, she's covered muralists who are honoring Kobe Bryant, Silver Lake neighborhood council meetings, Biden supporters in the Silver Lake neighborhood celebrating after it was announced he won the 2020 Presidential Election, and community fridges offering free food to struggling neighbors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to her work for ABC7, Sophie Flay is a contributor to Localish, and co-hosts the show The Flay List with her Dad, in which they travel around New York City looking for the best local meals. She has also joined her dad on Beat Bobby Flay and Brunch at Bobby's.

Unlike his first dates with his previous two wives, Bobby Flay and Stephanie March were set up on a blind date in 2000. The couple had their first date at New York City's Nobu, the famed sushi restaurant owned by Nobu Matsuhisa, a Japanese celebrity chef. They dated for three years before Flay proposed in December 2003.

Flay popped the big question during the holiday season while ice skating at New York City's Rockefeller Plaza, coincidentally where his first marriage to Ponzek was held, and proposed to his third wife with a princess-cut engagement ring. They were engaged for two years before the couple finally tied the knot. Throughout their time together, March appeared on several of Flay's Food Network shows, including eight appearances on Boy Meets Grill with Bobby Flay, Bobby Flay Fit, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Iron Chef America: The Series. 

After filing for divorce things turned ugly for Bobby Flay and ex-wife Stephanie March, as personal details about their relationship and marriage began getting leaked to numerous sources. One of the leaks alleged that when March had an emergency appendectomy in November of 2013, Flay did not turn up to be at her side.

According to TMZ, arch had the emergency surgery after her appendix burst, and Flay didn't come to her bedside at the hospital until the day after her surgery. He also reportedly left before she was discharged, saying he had to work and offering to send his assistant to help his wife out as she recovered in the hospital.

That wasn't the only time that Flay wasn't there for March, as they spent their 10th, and ultimately final, anniversary apart, as Flay was attending the Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival alongside fellow chefs Giada De Laurentiis, Guy Fieri, and Duff Goldman. On February, 21, 2015, the day after the couple's 10-year anniversary, Flay hosted Bobby Flay's Caribbean Heat at the festival.

While her relationship with Bobby Flay ultimately didn't work out, Stephanie March didn't let that stop her as she continued to search for love. She found it just two years after her divorce when she married tech investor Dan Benton at the home that they share in Katonah, New York, according to a People exclusive article.

March was introduced to the investor a few months after her divorce from Flay, and their first date was at the Orient Express, a bar in New York City's West Village. Benton, who is 15 years March's senior, is the founder of Andor Capital, a hedge fund that shuttered in 2016.

He proposed to the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit actress while they were vacationing together in Greece. At the wedding, March wore a Dolce & Gabbana dress and borrowed her sister's earrings. Her best friend played the Star Wars theme song on March's grandmother's piano as she walked down the aisle, as both the bride and the groom are big fans of the franchise. The wedding ceremony was followed by an outdoor luncheon at the home.