Guy Fieri has a fresh perspective after a brutal injury left him in a wheelchair.
“It does give you appreciation for being healthy. You look at people that have disabilities and realize, we take a lot of things for granted,” Fieri, 58, said during an interview with Entertainment Weekly published on Tuesday, January 27. “Folks that are on crutches and stuff, you know, the next time you see somebody on crutches, maybe clear a little bit of a path. Open the door for them.”
The Food Network star was filming his upcoming show Flavortown Food Fight in Northern California in November 2025 when he “slipped and went all the way down the stairs” where his “right leg got caught on the threshold door,” he explained. “So I’m kind of halfway doing the splits going down the stairs, about a three-foot drop, and then it just took that leg and compressed it, snapped my quad muscle on the center of my leg in half. Literally in half.”
After being taken to the hospital for emergency surgery, Fieri learned that he’d be in a wheelchair and on crutches for at least eight weeks, well through the holiday season. The chef admitted that the incident caused him to appreciate life and his loved ones — including wife Lori, sons Hunter, 29, and Ryder, 19, and nephew Jules, 26 — more than ever before. (Fieri has raised Jules since his sister’s death in 2011.)
“I’ve always been that way as a person, but especially this thing of not being able to get around, and watching my wife, like, we come back to the grocery store and she’s carrying the groceries,” Fieri told the outlet on Tuesday. “That’s just not how it works in my world. She’s like, ‘You’ve done it forever. I can do this.’”
He added that his kids really “stepped up big” at Thanksgiving and Christmas, which helped the holidays go smoothly. “They did the cooking,” he said. “There was a lot of silver linings to it. But now I’m better, now I’m back.”
Fieri last provided an update on his health earlier this month, telling People that it was a “trying” holiday season as someone who is used to being as active as he is, but he was “trying to take it easy.”
At the time, Fieri said his doctors were being strict to not rush his recovery in fear his injury would regress.
“My doctors are all like, ‘We know you want to get after it, but let’s not go back to where we were.’ And I’m like, ‘We are never going back to that!’ That was the worst thing I’ve been through in the last 20 years,” he said, but noted that he would be “up and ready and healthy and rolling” by the time Super Bowl LX arrives in February.
The Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives star has already teased his appearance at the big game in Santa Clara, California, taking to social media earlier this week to give fans a glimpse at a brand new makeover in celebration of his 58th birthday. Gone was the spikey blonde hair, colorful outfits and goatee, traded in for a more subdued brunette look, clean shaven face and khaki slacks.
“Hey there! After so many years of celebrating my birthday as Guy, I figured this year I’d celebrate it as JustaGuy. Happy birthday to me!” he said in a video of himself blowing out birthday candles. In the caption, Fieri added, “New Year. New Guy. New Look.”
Fieri later revealed that the video was actually a teaser for his upcoming Super Bowl commercial for Bosch — and not a product of AI like many fans suspected.
“They said, ‘Well, can you shave your goatee?’ And I said, ‘I would for this. This is such an important commercial. This is such a big deal,’” he explained to People in a January 26 interview, noting that he sent a photo of his new vibe to his mom.
“She said, ‘Who is that?’ She said, ‘It really looks a lot like you, but I know it’s not you.’ I said, ‘Mom, that’s me,’” he quipped.
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