‘Where’s my shovel?’ she jokes, pretending to search the living room. ‘Any woman who dates a powerful man, they’ll say she’s a gold-digger’
globally with three dance songs — one is called Yummy Boyz, the pop video for which shows her dancing naked, wearing only knee-high boots and boxing gloves.
In On Ya she wears gold and silver leotards and in Give Us Back Love she is also scantily clad and parades around in a red polka-dot bikini. The videos have had millions of views on YouTube.
‘ Part of my art is being provocative, and I don’t have hang-ups about nudity at all,’ she says airily. ‘Feminism and sexuality are fascinating subjects that I like to explore.’
Has her septuagenarian ex watched her videos? ‘He was intrigued about my art,’ she replies. Having watched them myself, I’ll bet he was.
The couple went to glamorous Hollywood events during their 24 months together. Meital was hanging on Pacino’s arm at the premiere of The Irishman last October. Watching a re-run of their arrival, they seemed to make an incongruous couple — she was quirkily dressed, sexy and glowing with energy, while Pacino loped along the red carpet with his shirt hanging loose and his hair dishevelled and pulled back into a ponytail, looking every year of his age.
‘I was happy to be there with him, and be his woman, and celebrate his success and his talent,’ she says, generously.
THEIR life wasn’t all glamour. They also did the normal stuff couples in love do. They went back and forth between each other’s houses in LA, cooked dinner together, watched TV and met each other’s friends.
Meital says she got on well with Pacino’s children by two of his former partners — 30-year- old Julie Marie and 19-year-old twins
Anton and Olivia. ‘They made me feel welcome,’ she says, wistfully.
And, indeed, Pacino is a devoted father and sees a lot of his children, taking his teenage daughter Olivia to red carpet events as well as Meital.
He has never married and Meital was in a long line of beautiful women he has dated.
Australian film director Lyndall Hobbs, whom he dated in the eighties and Nineties, reportedly described him as ‘ shy and neurotic’, and Pacino himself has talked of being in therapy for years after finding sudden fame with the Godfather.
What are the challenges of dating a much older man?
‘It’s different, obviously, because you’re not going to do crazy things like go out at 2am and go to a rave party,’ replies Meital.
‘It was quieter moments, but I really didn’t think I was missing out on anything. I’m not a big socialiser anyway. And one of the things people don’t know about him is that he’s so funny. We were cracking up all the time.’
And what about their physical relationship — 39 years is a whopping age difference in the bedroom. ‘ We had a very full relationship,’ is all she will say.
‘He’s in great shape and I didn’t feel there was anything challenging from that perspective.’
She pauses for a few seconds and continues: ‘There’s a stereotype of the younger woman/older man.
‘If anyone was a fly on the wall — well, these things are surprising sometimes. They’re not what they seem.’
So she didn’t feel like his carer? ‘That’s ridiculous,’ she replies.
Like many women who meet the right man at the wrong time, Meital says she is sad she met the film star too late. ‘I used to say to myself: “Why didn’t we meet when he was younger?” ’ she sighs.
She was trying to make a joke when she mentioned that Pacino didn’t give her gifts, she insists, and shrugs off accusations that she is a gold-digger, merely after the actor’s money and power.
‘Where’s my shovel?’ she jokes, pretending to search the living room. ‘ Any woman who dates a powerful man, they’ll say she’s a gold- digger. It’s another stereotype, and people can think of me what they want.
‘The relationship between us wasn’t based on anything like that. Not even slightly. It wasn’t about any kind of rational benefits. Neither of us did it in a strategic way. It was pure love.’
The break-up in February was difficult, she acknowledges.
‘ We had a little fight about something. That’s what started it. And then it grew into something bigger. It was my initiation. It was: “Where are we going with this? It’s been two years. Are we going to the next step or are we going backwards? Are we going to part ways?”
‘ We didn’t say that it’s not working, because it was still kind of working, but we were just saying that maybe it’s time to move on. It was a mutual decision.’
I notice Meital hasn’t once referred to Pacino by name — ‘we have secret nicknames for each other, ha, ha,’ she says — and ask if he was amused about any of her comments, particularly about his alleged stinginess.
‘No, he’s a very private person,’ she says, cutting off the subject.
The actress says that these last few weeks she has been putting on a brave face. ‘I feel sadness. I’m laughing now, but I cry when I listen to music. I hope he feels sadness, too.’
MEITAL hopes she and Pacino will remain friends, although, as we all know, that can be easier said than done. ‘ We want to be in each other’s lives,’ she insists. ‘I try to be friends with all my exes.’
I wonder if she will be happy to see Pacino with someone else?
‘No. Not right now, I’d be very jealous,’ she says. ‘ But hopefully that will pass.
‘I still believe in love, but I’m on a love detox at the moment, having a corona break,’ she laughs, referring to the current need for social distancing.
For now, Meital says her only male companion will be her pet tiger Charlie, who has appeared with her in her music videos and on Cabaret Maxime.
I’m not sure whether or not she is joking, but she says she adopted the animal in 2010 and shows me pictures of them together.
The 13-year-old tiger lives with his trainer, but comes to visit, she insists.
‘He’s very sweet and soft and calm — not like an ordinary tiger. He lets me pet him.
‘Sometimes, he stays overnight. One night he was on the bed with me, but it was only one time. Obviously it’s not very comfy and you wake up in a dangerous position. Some people have emotional support dogs, but I have an emotional support tiger!’
She seems philosophical about what has happened, but here she is, at the age of 40, single and childless. Does she have any regrets?
‘It was never my goal in life to meet a person of that age, but I don’t regret it. I still have time to have kids and of course I want to fall in love again.
‘I probably won’t start dating someone who is 21, but never say never,’ Meital adds, with a twinkle in her eye.