“Trust me: We will not be wasting a moment of our time together, for as much time as we are given”, Gilbert wrote.
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Elizabeth Gilbert is in love. I have needed that time, and I’ve been grateful to have it.
She also informs her readers that the reason she’s going public with her and Elias’s relationship now is because Elias has been diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer, which is incurable.
Titled “ME & RAYYA”, the lengthy post details her friendship turned relationship with the fellow writer and filmmaker, as well as the tragic circumstances that brought Elizabeth’s feelings to light.
In an emotional Facebook post on Wednesday, Elizabeth explained that she has found love again, with her long time best friend.
As to why they have chose to speak up now, she says among other things, “Rayya and I have decided together to speak up publicly now – both about her cancer and about our love for each other”.
Gilbert announced the revelation on her Facebook page, revealing that she is in a relationship with her best friend author Rayya Elias.
Gilbert, 47, goes on to explain that she’s been by Rayya’s side ever since her diagnosis and in the process has come to terms with a variety of emotions.
“”I do not merely love Rayya; I am in love with Rayya.””.
Elizabeth also briefly confirmed that her marriage with José Nunes – who was referred to as Felipe in her memoir – ended because of “this situation”.
The award-winning writer announced via Facebook in July that she was ending her almost 10-year long marriage to husband, José Nunes. We will resonate with it, and we will thank you for it.
We think Gilbert being open about her relationship is absolutely awesome, and we wouldn’t expect anything less from the author of an inspirational memoir which stressed the importance of sharing one’s truth and living authentically. Eat, Pray, Love was a massive success (they even made a movie staring Julia Roberts, so you know it’s a big deal.) And then – spoiler alert – the guy she falls in love with in the end (uh, Javier Bardem if you’re going by the movie) actually ends up becoming her husband.
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Elias wrote Harley Loco: A Memoir of Hard Living, Hair, and Post Punk, from the Middle East to the Lower East Side, a memoir about her own struggles with casual sex, pornography, cocaine and heroin. How some womenhave to keep their secret for fear of breaking their family apart.
