Rumours of a family fallout hit headlines last month (Oct10) when Chris Hutcheson, the father of the Hell’s Kitchen star’s wife Tana, stepped down as CEO of the celebrity chef’s business empire.
Hutcheson subsequently went public with his feelings for Ramsay in a British newspaper interview, branding the TV chef “manic”, and adding: “His mood swings are huge. I have dealt with his breakdowns for a number of years. I have had him sat in front of me bursting into tears.”
Ramsay and his wife reacted with fury at his claims, insisting Hutcheson’s public comments have “compounded” the problem.
But the chef backtracked and addressed the issue in an open letter to Tana’s mother, Greta Hutcheson, on Tuesday (09Nov10), explaining why he fired his wife’s father and pleading with her to reach out to his wife.
The emotional note, published in U.K. newspaper the Evening Standard, reads: “This has to be one of the most painful letters I’ve ever had to write.
“Listening to Tana in floods of tears reading your letter… asking that she stays away from her family is so awfully wrong.
“I’m not expecting a birthday card, but you’re punishing your daughter and our four children for all the wrong reasons, it’s so sad. She’s an amazing woman and you’ve been a fantastic mum… please don’t stop!”
Ramsay also accused Hutcheson, who remains a major shareholder, of running the business “as a dictator” and claimed staffmembers reacted with “relief” when he told them his father-in-law was leaving.
The chef has suffered severely in the recent economic downturn and in 2009 was forced to pump $8 million (£5 million) of his own money into his businesses in a last-ditch bid to keep them afloat amid mounting tax bills sent to his company, Gordon Ramsay Holdings.
