Gordon Ramsay and Tana Ramsay have been married since 1996 and recently welcomed their sixth child

Gordon Ramsay has a longstanding reputation for being tough in the kitchen on shows like Hell’s Kitchen, MasterChef and Kitchen Nightmares. However, he has a soft spot for his wife, Tana Ramsay.

The couple first met in the early ’90s at a party, though Tana was dating someone else at the time. They reconnected a few years later and went on to get married in 1996.

“Gordon just loves winding people up. Absolutely loves it,” Tana told The Telegraph in 2016 of her husband. “You have to understand him to know what he’s like, and I understand him absolutely.”

When it comes to their family, though, Tana admitted she’s the stern parent in the Ramsay household, which includes their six children — Megan, twins Jack and Holly, Matilda, Oscar and baby Jesse. Tana told the Daily Mail in 2006 that she wants her brood to be “independent,” while her husband wants them “to have that hunger in life.”

“I’m incredibly strict with them,” she said. “I think Gordon’s mum thinks I can be too harsh. I’m harder on my kids than a lot of people, but I have to be.”

So, who is Gordon Ramsay’s wife? Here’s everything to know about Tana Ramsay and her relationship with the celebrity chef.

She was engaged to someone else when she first met Gordon

According to a 2008 profile story in The Guardian, Tana was in her early 20s when she first met Gordon at a New Year’s Eve party. At the time, she was engaged to someone else and not interested in the budding chef, whom she described as “a complete arrogant arse.”

However, when the two ran into each other again at a flat Tana shared with a mutual friend — Gordon was storing his motorbike there and stopped by to pick it up — they hit it off and started dating.

She married Gordon in 1996

The couple tied the knot on Dec. 21, 1996.

In August 2021, nearly 25 years later, Tana slipped into her wedding gown again and shared a video on Instagram of her twirling around. She received several positive comments — including one from her husband, who commented “Omfg” and a fire emoji.

Tana and Gordon celebrated 27 years of marriage in 2023. The famous chef marked their anniversary by sharing a throwback photo from their wedding day on Instagram. In the caption, he called Tana an “amazing woman, wife, mother.”

After being married for nearly three decades, Gordon told PEOPLE in May 2024 that making sure they have quality time together is what keeps the spark alive.

“Date nights are crucial, whether it’s the cinema, whether it’s going out for a drive. We have a little time, but it’s quality, and so that is really important,” he said.

They also jump at the chance to take quick getaways together. “We were in Nottingham two weeks ago. We went to go see Tilly up at her university. And after walking the campus and seeing Tilly on her campus, we then went for dinner at a two-Michelin star [restaurant] up in Nottingham and then drove back the next morning,” he added.

She and Gordon share six kids

Tana and Gordon have six children together.

Their first daughter, Megan, was born in 1998. She was followed by twins Holly and Jack in 2000, daughter Matilda “Tilly” in 2001, son Oscar in 2019 and son Jesse in 2023. Before welcoming Oscar and Jesse, Tana suffered a miscarriage in 2016.

Gordon teased the prospect of expanding their brood in January 2023 during an appearance on Heart Breakfast. When asked by co-host Jamie Theakston how many children he had, he cheekily answered: “Last time I looked, there was five … There could be one more on the way.”

Jesse James Ramsay’s surprise arrival was announced on Instagram.

“One more bundle of love to the Ramsay brigade!! 3 boys, 3 girls…. Done,” the celebrity chef wrote alongside photos of the newborn. In a separate post, Tana added: “It’s been a nerve wracking 9 months but we’ve made it and we have been blessed with this little bundle. Ramsay family definitely complete.”

She’s a cookbook author and former teacher

Both Tana and Gordon share an interest in food. She published her first cookbook, Tana Ramsay’s Family Kitchen, in 2006, followed by five additional titles, including Tana’s Kitchen Secrets in 2010 and I Love to Bake in 2011.

While Tana’s cooking is preferred in the Ramsay household, she admitted to Toronto CityNews in November 2008 that she’s not as speedy in the kitchen as her chef husband.

“I’ve never been trained as a chef. I take forever to chop an onion or a carrot compared to [Gordon], but it’s my way of real family food,” she told the outlet. “Our dishes are completely different, and it’s the home cooking he wants when he’s at home.”

On cooking for her family, she added, “I remember going home and having a home-cooked meal on the table — just the comfort that gave me as a child and the security it makes you feel. That’s what I want to do for my family.”

Tana is a former Montessori teacher and former food editor for Grazia magazine, per her author’s bio for HarperCollins Publishers.

She is close friends with Victoria Beckham

In addition to leaning on her husband, Tana has developed a friendship with Victoria Beckham over the years. The Ramsays and Beckhams are actually close family friends, with Gordon telling The Sun in 2017, per HuffPost, “Over the past 10 years, we’ve naturally got on. I see how hard David [Beckham] and Victoria work.”

He added, “But the connection is our ambition to get all eight children through school, college, university and then dust ourselves down, when the kids are in their 20s, as having been decent parents. That’s hard. We feed off each other.”

When Victoria celebrated her milestone 50th birthday in April 2024, Tana celebrated her friend with a post on Instagram.

“Happy happy birthday to a very special person in my life @victoriabeckham you are a true friend who has been the most amazing support and inspiration and most importantly we have the best fun x I love you so much, have the best day!!!” she wrote in her caption.

She owned a salon in London

Tana opened the salon All About the Girl in London’s Wandsworth district in 2011, which offered various beauty treatments like tanning, massages, manicures and eyelash extensions.

Following its launch, Tana spoke to StyleNest in 2012 about what inspired her new venture.

“I felt that there was a gap in the local market for somewhere that offered ‘everything under one roof,'” she said. “Customers can have anything from a relaxing hour-and-a-half massage or a quick eyebrow tint or blow-dry. I wanted to offer a full range of treatments that fit into busy lives — from the gorgeous indulgent massage to the speedy wax, it’s all about the girl!”

After 12 years of owning and operating All About the Girl, Tana passed ownership over to Townhouse and its founder Juanita Huber-Millet.

She’s opened up about her fertility struggles

After the pair suffered a pregnancy loss in 2016, son Oscar arrived in 2019. Tana and Gordon have since discussed welcoming another child into their lives, telling the Daily Mail in 2021 they were “contemplating” more children.

Despite the devastating loss, Tana has opened up about what she experienced in hopes of helping others through “incredibly hard” situations. In conversation with the U.K. outlet Metro, she also recalled how “amazing” her husband was during the difficult time.

“He’s always been one to talk about everything, and he was very good at sort of talking it out of me and never making me feel that, ‘Oh, you know, maybe we shouldn’t talk about it,’ ” Tana said.

She also admitted that she “found it really hard when people would talk to me and not mention it because it was like it never happened.”

“All I wanted to do was talk about it with friends, with family, with anyone who asked me about it because it was incredibly hard,” Tana added. “You go from having a baby kicking inside of you to suddenly it’s not there, and it was a really hard experience.”

In June 2023, Tana opened up about her miscarriage again, sharing an emotional post on Instagram and revealing that their child’s name was Rocky.

“A happy picture taken of us celebrating Meghan’s 18th, I was just under 20 weeks pregnant,” she captioned a family photo. “Little did we know, a few days later I would be holding our little boy Rocky — born with a strong heartbeat, but too little to survive.”

“We all miss you everyday. We love you Rocky, forever in our hearts,” she added.

She inspired Gordon’s 50-lb. weight loss

When Tana gave her husband the ultimatum to start taking care of himself or risk their relationship, he got in shape and dropped over 50 lbs. in the process.

“Tana was not impressed with the way I was,” he told the Daily Mail in 2018 about the catalyst for his body transformation. “I was overweight, 18 stone [252 lbs.]. I looked like a sack of s—. I look at the pictures and think, ‘How did Tana stay around?’ Because Tana has got better-looking and more gorgeous. And there she is, getting in bed with a fat f—.”

In addition to his wife’s warning, his 53-year-old father dying of a heart attack was another reason the chef was motivated to get in shape.

“[That age is in] only a couple of years’ time. I’ve got this reminder to get fit; it’s scary. I get the fear on a daily basis,” he said, adding of his dad: “I may have not got on with him, but I still miss him. I miss everything I could have had from him if he was still alive in his 70s.”

She still gets “butterflies” when she sees Gordon

Gordon and Tana are still very much in love. The mom of six told PEOPLE that she still gets “butterflies” when she hasn’t seen her husband in a few weeks.

“I never want to take that for granted — even with all these kids to worry about. We have a lot of fun,” she said, adding that Gordon “likes to phone about 25 times a day” when he’s away filming.