She’s the woman who basically put Bali’s jungle town, Ubud, on the map as a must for mid-life crisis suffering, soul-searching divorcees.
Elizabeth Gilbert, the author who famously wrote in her memoir ‘Eat Pray Love’ about her story of coming to Bali to heal and find love again has some big news.
She announced this July that she split from her Brazilian husband—the one that she met and fell in love with in Bali—and now she’s just announced via Facebook the real reason why.
Gilbert has fallen for her best girlfriend.
The American author says she made the revelation when her best friend Rayya Elias was diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer, incurable diseases.
Suddenly, “everything became about HER. I cancelled everything in my life that could be cancelled, and I went straight to her side, where I have been ever since,” Gilbert writes.
Elias is Gilbert’s closest friend, role model, traveling companion, and so on: “In short, she is my PERSON.”
It was the prospect of Elias dying that gave Gilbert her “a-ha” moment, she writes: “I was faced with this truth: I do not merely love Rayya; I am in love with Rayya. And I have no more time for denying that truth.”
From that point on, Gilbert said there was no turning back.
“Here is the thing about truth: Once you see it, you cannot un-see it. So that truth, once it came to my heart’s attention, could not be ignored.”
Yes, in case the question is popping into your head, this did factor in to Gilbert’s divorce:
For those of you who are doing the math here, and who are wondering if this situation is why my marriage came to an end this spring, the simple answer is yes. (Please understand that I cannot say anything more about it than that. I trust you are all sensitive enough to understand how difficult this has been.
From there, Gilbert goes on to explain why she is now coming forward with this news. As a public figure, she doesn’t want to feel ashamed and hide, so she’s essentially putting it all on the table to spend every last waking moment with the person she’s now deemed as her “person.” Fair enough.
Read her full status below:
