Sandra Lee shares breaking point in split from Andrew Cuomo: ‘Every window and door closed’
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Sandra Lee split in 2019 after 14 years together
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sandra Lee revealed the moment she knew her relationship with former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was over.
Lee and Cuomo dated for 14 years but never married. They split in 2019, four years after the celebrity chef was diagnosed with breast cancer.
"I was in my kitchen, and he said something. And the minute he said it, I knew what he’d just said. And every window and door closed. And that was it," Lee explained to US Weekly.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}However, Lee refused to share the details of the comment made in the spring of 2019.
FOOD NETWORK STAR SANDRA LEE WAS ‘AS SICK AS CAN BE’ AFTER TRYING WEIGHT-LOSS MEDICATION
Andrew Cuomo and Sandra Lee broke up in 2019 after 14 years together. (Getty Images)
"He knows what it is. I know what it is," she said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}At the time of their split, Lee and Cuomo had been spending less time together and had "separate" lives.
Lee didn't share many details about her breakup from Cuomo, choosing instead to keep the information private.
"When you live separate lives, you are not creating a life together," she told the outlet.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sandra Lee claimed Andrew Cuomo was absent toward the end of their relationship. (Getty Images)
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"I was in my kitchen, and he said something. And the minute he said it, I knew what he’d just said. And every window and door closed. And that was it."
The "Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee" star was diagnosed with breast cancer, specifically ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), in 2015. She underwent a double mastectomy and later a complete hysterectomy.
"Cancer is aggressive and tricky, and it hides and waits," Lee told US Weekly. "I had to spend a year dealing with that as aggressively as I could."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}As her birthday passed during treatment, Lee claimed she spent the day alone.
Andrew Cuomo and Sandra Lee met in 2005 at a party in the Hamptons. (Getty Images)
"I spent the day by myself. I was sitting on my lawn alone," Lee recalled. "My birthday was a precious day to me, especially that one. I’m not someone who feels sorry for themselves, but that day was a bit much for me."
The chef did note that she and Cuomo later went out to dinner.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Cuomo claimed he cleared his schedule to celebrate Lee's birthday that year.
Rich Azzopardi, Cuomo's spokesperson, slammed Lee's recollection of events, explaining it doesn't match up with what happened.
"I'll say this, her current version of what happened doesn’t square with what she previously said in the documentary she herself produced and released in 2018 — three years after her medical operation… comments Sandra made in 2016 in which she praised the governor for being there ‘through every step’ of her breast cancer recovery, the comments she made after her relationship with the governor ended, and how she portrayed her relationship with him in 2020 during the height of COVID when Sandra was proud to pronounce to the world that the governor was 'still her guy' and that they ‘spoke every day,’" Azzopardi told Fox News Digital.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We wish her nothing but luck in her future endeavors."
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Sandra Lee opened up about her split from former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a new interview. (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
While dealing with the "s---ty" media storm that followed her public split from Cuomo, Lee found out her uncle had been diagnosed with a terminal illness.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She moved to take care of the uncle she saw as a father figure before his death in 2023, leading to the "lowest point" of her life.
"I went into the bathroom and just started throwing up," Lee revealed. "I think that was my body just purging that five years of time. Actually, that had to be the lowest point of my life, leaning over a toilet, vomiting from sadness and grief."
Sandra Lee says the "lowest point" in her life came after her uncle died. (Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic)
For Lee, the last ten years have made her "wiser and stronger."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I will never get over the heartbreak of loss of the last 10 years," she said. "The grief has been endless, but I will use it to fuel and feed me and make me wiser and stronger.
"I would say that I’ve had the most challenging decade of my life."