Sandra Lee Has Learned Life 'Management Techniques’ from Taylor Swift

Sandra Lee has found support in Taylor Swift as she returns to the public eye.

“I check in with myself often, actually talk to myself. ‘Is it OK with you, Sandy? Does this work for you? Have you made this mistake before?’ Is it going to be a mistake?’” Lee, 58, exclusively shares in her Us Weekly cover story. “I learned some of those life skill management techniques from Taylor Swift. We all have much to teach each other and ourselves.”

Lee recalls watching Swift, 34, question herself “when she was hurt by something someone had said on her social media.”

“And she was sitting in the car, and she goes, ‘I asked myself, are we going to do this again?’” Lee explains. “In that moment, I thought, ‘She’s absolutely right. That’s exactly right.’ You don’t have to check with someone else. You have to check with yourself because you’re the person that has to live with you.” (Lee is seemingly referencing a scene from 2020’s Miss Americana, where Swift discusses struggling with her body image.)

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Lee notes that wasn’t necessarily a fan of Swift before that moment, but now she is. “Although I haven’t gone to the concert,” she says. “Who can get tickets?”

After taking a step back from public life when her relationship with ex Andrew Cuomo imploded in 2019, Lee is now starting a new chapter. (Lee and the former New York Governor, 66, were together for more than a decade. She moved on with boyfriend Ben Youcef in spring 2021.)

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The Food Network alum is dabbling in the feel-good reality baking show genre, starring in Blue Ribbon Baking Championship which is set to hit Netflix on Friday, August 9.

In the series, bakers from state and country fairs compete for a chance to win $100,000. Lee, who’s a county fair blue ribbon winner herself, says she’s thrilled to team up with Jason Biggs to host the show.

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“What people may not know about Jason is that he’s also an award-winning baker!” she tells Us.

The idea for the Blue Ribbon Baking Championship first came to Lee’s mind over a decade ago and is inspired by her experiences at the 1992 Los Angeles County Fair.

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“These people are the most competitive in the nation,” she says. “We combed the nation for the best bakers in the United States. One woman, Eileen, has 700 ribbons!”

Lee is keeping busy with “a baker’s dozen” of other projects in various stages of development, including Dinner Budget Showdown on Roku.

Now, years after her split from Cuomo and her breast cancer diagnosis in 2015, Lee looks back at her past from a positive lens.

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“We all go through pain and hurt,” she says. “You’re either at the beginning, the middle or the end of hurt and pain. It’s life. It’s a cycle. And then you get these amazing runs of happiness that make it all worth it.”

During the interview, Lee pauses to find the right phrasing. “My life was a nightmare that slowly turned into a dream,” she says.

Blue Ribbon Baking Championship premieres on Netflix August 9.

For more on Sandra Lee, watch the exclusive video above and pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly — on newsstands now.

With reporting by Amanda Williams