Guy Fieri says he doesn’t plan on leaving his sons Hunter or Ryder any money in his will unless they get a pair of degrees.
The celebrity chef, 55, speaking with Fox News Tuesday, quoted Shaquille O’Neal in telling sons Hunter, 27, and Ryder, 17, that they had to get two degrees to have access to an inheritance.
‘Shaq said it best: Shaq said, “If you want this cheese, you got to get to two degrees,”‘ the Columbus, Ohio native said. ‘Well, my two degrees mean, you know, postgraduate.’
The TV personality inked a $100 million, three-year pact with Food Network last month, according to Variety.
Despite the windfall, Fieri said that told his sons he’s ‘going to die broke’ and not leave an inheritance unless they meet the educational parameters he set.
Guy Fieri, 55, says he doesn’t plan on leaving his sons Hunter or Ryder any money in his will unless they get a pair of degrees. Pictured in Las Vegas in July
The Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives host and restaurateur is father to two sons Hunter, 27, (R) and Ryder, 17, with spouse Lori, 52
The Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives host and restaurateur is father to the two sons with spouse Lori, 52, and has helped raise his nephew Jules, 22, since his sister Morgan’s death of metastatic melanoma in February of 2011.
‘I’ve told them the same thing my dad told me,’ Fieri said. ‘My dad says, “When I die, you can expect that I’m going to die broke, and you’re going to be paying for the funeral.”
‘And I told my boys, “None of this that we’ve been … that I’ve been building are you going to get unless you come and take it from me.”‘
Fieri said his son Ryder, who is currently in his last year of high school, is telling him, ‘Dad, this is so unfair. I haven’t even gone to college yet, and you’re already pushing that I’ve got to get an MBA? Can I just get through college?’
Hunter is currently working toward a master’s degree in business at the University of Miami, Fieri said.
Fieri credited his nephew Jules for seeking a higher education as he attends college in Southern California.
‘Jules is in the music industry down in LA,’ Fieri said. ‘He’s in the law program at Loyola Marymount right now.
‘If you’re going to be a big-time entertainment agent, you need to have that law background. So he’s doing that.’
The celeb chef and his younger son Ryder were pictured at the NBA All-Star Game in Salt Lake City this past February
The TV personality was pictured earlier this month at the opening of a restaurant in Las Vegas
The TV personality inked a $100 million deal with Food Network last month
Fieri told People last month he was ‘very humbled’ by his lucrative new contract, which comes on the heels of an $80 million deal he inked in 2021.
‘I’m so appreciative,’ Fieri said. ‘I really feel fortunate. I started at the Food Network almost 17, 18 years ago. And never thought anything like this was ever coming my way.’
Fieri said when he started his career, he ‘just wanted to be a cook,’ ‘to own my own restaurant’ and to ‘be a great dad.
‘And that was it. That’s all I really wanted I had aspirations of all kinds of things, but to think that this has happened?’