How Phil Rosenthal and His Wife Monica Horan Are Like Ray and Debra in ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’

For Somebody Feed Phil star Philip Rosenthal, art sometimes imitates real life when it comes to his 30-year marriage to his wife, Monica Horan — the keyword, of course, being “sometimes.”

While Phil is currently starring in a foodie friendly Netflix travel show, the two are perhaps best known for their work in the early 2000s American sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, which Monica starred in and Phil created. Turns out, a lot of the storylines that unfolded between the show’s titular characters Raymond (Ray Ramano) and Debra (Patricia Heaton) were inspired by Phil and Monica’s own marriage.

Monica and Phil on the set of Everybody Loves Raymond in 2005.

Kevin Winter

“Monica and I once had a fight over a can opener,” Phil told People in 2002. “I spilled the tuna everywhere and got mad and things were said.” This incident inspired one of Ray’s biggest gaffes on the series, which is when he asked Debra, “Why am I making tuna fish when I just got home from work?” What’s more, an episode that dealt with Debra’s PMS drew its dialogue from real-life conversations between Monica and Phil. In fact, that episode, “Bad Moon Rising,” earned Ray and Phil an Emmy nomination in the Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series category.

“I’m hearing lines from conversations I had with my husband,” Monica said at the time. “Ray was telling Debra to take medication, and she was telling him she needed a hug. I was like, ‘Whoa.’ I was crying, then laughing, then crying. It was surreal.”

Though Ray and Debra often bickered, Phil and Monica considered the show to be great for their own marriage. “The show has been great therapy,” Phil once said. “We communicate now and that is profound.”

Monica and Phil in West Hollywood, California in 2020.

Gregg DeGuire

Everybody Loves Raymond premiered in 1996, roughly 10 years after Monica and Phil first met. The story goes that Phil saw a play that Monica had starred in and was entranced by her performance. They ended up joining the same comedy troupe and later connected the dots that they had both been theater majors at Hofstra University.

“We ran into each other, and the first thing he said to me was, ‘I’m a big fan of yours. Hello!'” she told The Jewish Exponent. “And I actually said to him, ‘I’m a big fan of yours, too,’ but I had not really seen him in anything. I was just taken off-guard.”

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Nonetheless, they wound up hitting it off. Monica was raised Catholic and ended up converting to Judaism before marrying Phil in 1990. Hilariously, the dance Phil and Amy performed at their reception ended up being mimicked when Robert and Amy got married in season 7 of Everybody Loves Raymond, according to The Herald Dispatch. The pair now have two children together, Ben and Lily.

When Everybody Loves Raymond ended in the spring of 2005, both Phil and Monica became wrapped up in other projects. Six years after taking her final bow as Amy, Monica went on to appear in several TV series, including The Whole Truth, The Adventures of Mr. Clown, and The Bold and The Beautiful. Phil got involved in other writing and producing projects, like Earth to America and The Winklers. Then in 2018, he began starring in his own show called Somebody Feed Phil.

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Most recently, fans got to see Phil, Monica, and other cast members of Everybody Loves Raymond reunite for the 14th Annual IMF Virtual Comedy Celebration to benefit the International Myeloma Foundation. The experience was incredibly meaningful and nostalgic for the pair.

“It was such a joy to go through these scripts again and then have the cast read them again. Not only did we laugh a lot, but we were just reminded of what a special time it was, how special everyone is to each other,” Phil told The Hollywood Reporter.

Monica, too, gushed about the unforgettable experience, one that surely brought back all sorts of memories — both from the earlier days of her and Phil’s marriage and those made in front of the cameras.

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“What we have always heard through the years about the show is it strikes a familiar chord in people,” Monica added. “That’s why this is so sentimental and special because we hear people telling stories about how this is the one thing they could watch with their parents, or people who were struggling through difficult things in life, it got them through, which I think a lot of comedies do.”

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Kayla Keegan News and Entertainment Editor Kayla Keegan covers all things in the entertainment, pop culture, and celebrity space for Good Housekeeping.

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