The Sad Truth About Sandra Lee's Childhood

Sandra Lee is most well known for her cooking show, "Semi-Homemade Cooking," which airs on the Food Network. She has also expanded her talents into the publishing world, with 27 books to her name spanning the areas of cooking and memoir. The California native promotes recipes in which 70% of the ingredients are store-bought while just 30% are fresh, according to Harper's Bazaar. She believes that this approach has been a huge selling point for her show and books, telling the publication, "Why I have had such a huge career and why I have sold over four million books is that people can do what I share with them to do." Her recipes are easy-to-follow and perfect for even the most inexperienced of home cooks.

Many people aren't as familiar with Sandra's life prior to becoming a successful Food Network personality. For starters, she previously found success as a QVC host after inventing the Kurtain Kraft, which involved a DIY kit consisting of wire coat hangers and sheets of fabric that purchasers could use to create curtain panels, as per Vogue. She sold millions of dollars worth of the product doing infomercials on QVC and working trade shows. 

But long before her fame, the author experienced a childhood filled with challenges that she's been candid about with her fans. Her childhood also played a huge part in the development of her passion for easy, no-fuss cooking.

Sandra Lee was born to teenage parents who left her and her younger sister with their grandmother when Sandra was just a couple of years old, according to New York Magazine. For the next four years, the only "mother" the renowned chef knew was her grandmother. When Sandra's mother showed up with her new husband to reclaim her daughters, Sandra was confused. She wrote in her memoir, "Made From Scratch," that she "wondered why these strangers wanted to take us away" (via ABC News). The home she had known with her grandmother was soon a thing of the past. 

Sandra's stepfather, Richard, left the family after welcoming three children with her mother, leaving her to take care of her younger siblings while her mother "spent her days lying on the couch, taking pills and screaming" at them, she wrote.

In her memoir, Sandra describes her childhood as "scary" at times, specifying that her "life felt completely out of control." She endured brutal fights with her mother and plenty of hungry nights as she tried to make the family's food stamps stretch. "I daydreamed of being a normal kid, but that wasn't the reality I lived in," she writes. Sandra eventually moved out when she was 16 to live with her father, Wayne, in Wisconsin. While she was left with plenty of scars from her upbringing, one of her saving graces was knowing how to cook, which she owes to her grandmother.

Despite the ups and downs of her childhood, Sandra Lee found success as a chef and author. Her childhood tribulations also inspired her to give back to her community. She's been involved with a number of charity organizations, including UNICEF, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Meals on Wheels, and the St. Elizabeth Seton Children's Foundation, according to People. 

Sandra's passion to help others became even more apparent when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. She used her experience as a jumping-off point to spread awareness for the disease and raise money for research, per the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Then, in 2017, Modern Luxury's Angeleno magazine recognized Sandra's efforts and awarded her the Altruist of the Year award, People noted. 

In an interview with Angeleno (via People), Sandra delved into her desire to use her fame and resources to help others, revealing that one of the reasons she is motivated for philanthropic work is because she understands "firsthand" how charities can transform the lives they help, "especially to a child." Without the difficulties she faced growing up, she says she wouldn't be who she is today. "Some would say I was born into underprivileged circumstances," Sandra told the publication, adding, "I think of it as a gift." The person she became as a result of her circumstances is one "who is committed to working hard, having a clear perspective, putting [her] family first and giving back."