Chef Anne Burrell described her decision to settle down with husband Stuart Claxton just a few months before her shocking death at age 55.
When Burrell stopped by Tori Spelling’s “misSPELLING” podcast in March, she opened up about giving the dating app Bumble a try in her late 40s.
That’s how she met Claxton, whom she married in October 2021.
The Food Network star said she “enjoyed” the dating app experience, which prompted Spelling, 52, to ask what took her “so long” to give it a try.
“I was living my best life,” Burrell replied. “I was living the rock star chef life.
“I was working a lot, and I had a great social life,” she continued. “But I just started to feel like, ‘All right, you’re getting a little old to keep on doing this. What are we doing? Where are we going in life?’”
The “Worst Cooks in America” mentor explained that she had always told herself she would not get married until she felt like she had “accomplished stuff” and had “something in life to share.”
She added that having children was never on her “radar,” noting that she loved being an aunt to her nieces and nephews.
“Stuart has a son, so now I’m a stepmom,” she said of Javier, 20, calling that the “perfect amount of parenting time.”
In her Instagram tribute to Burrell following her death, fellow Food Network personality Rachael Ray also referred to her late friend as a “rockstar,” emphasizing how “honored” she was when Burrell asked her to be a bridesmaid in her wedding.
Chef Alex Guarnaschelli, who was also present for Burrell’s big day, recalled how “excited” her pal was “to get married and celebrate life,” adding, “She was excited to add doting wife and stepmother to her extensive resume of achievements.”
Claxton — who discovered his wife’s unconscious body on the shower floor, surrounded by pills, on Tuesday morning — has yet to publicly address her death.
However, her family issued a collective statement earlier this week in which they remembered “her warmth, spirit and boundless love.”
After finding Burrell’s body in their Brooklyn, N.Y. home, Claxton called 911 under the belief that she had gone into cardiac arrest. He was instructed to perform CPR.
When first responders arrived, they pronounced Burrell dead at the scene.
She spent her last night alive having a “blast” at an improv show at The Second City New York on Monday.
The cause and manner of Burrell’s death are under investigation.