The Daily Telegraph

Author’s ‘love ceremony’ with dying partner

-

THE author of Eat, Pray, Love has held a commitment ceremony to celebrate her love for her best friend, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Elizabeth Gilbert left her husband for her female best friend, fellow writer Rayya Elias, last year, after the latter was diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancers.

Gilbert has now confirmed the new couple have undergone a “ceremony of love” to celebrate their romantic commitment, promising to “walk together as far as we can go”.

Gilbert confirmed she had separated from her husband Jose Nunes in spring 2016, telling fans Elias’s diagnosis had helped her to realise her true feelings. “I do not merely love Rayya; I am in love with Rayya,” she said at the time. “And I have no more time for denying that truth.”

Gilbert has now shared a photograph of the pair kissing behind a bouquet of flowers, as if dressed for a wedding. “Over the last year, Rayya Elias and I have been through some really difficult days together – but not today,” she told her followers. “Today was precious and perfect. A simple and spontaneou­s ceremony of love, surrounded by a small handful of friends and family.”

She added that the ceremony was not legally binding, but “a quiet and private celebratio­n of what we have long known to be true: we belong to each other”.

Admitting more difficult days are to come for the couple, with Elias’s illness now “grave”, Gilbert said: “But our love is strong. We will walk together as far as we can go together.”

 ??  ?? Elizabeth Gilbert, left, and cancer sufferer Rayya Elias at their commitment ceremony
Elizabeth Gilbert, left, and cancer sufferer Rayya Elias at their commitment ceremony

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom