The woman who inspired hundreds of women to drain their savings account, travel the world and marry the first Brazilian importer they met is now a lesbian.
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Elizabeth Gilbert, the 46-year-old author who wrote “Eat, Pray, Love,” announced that she is in love with her female best friend who is terminally ill.
“In the moment I first learned of Rayya’s diagnosis, a trap door opened at the bottom of my heart (a trap door I didn’t even know was there) and my entire existence fell straight through that door,” Gilbert wrote in a lengthy Facebook post Wednesday.
“From that moment forward, 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.”
“Something happened to my heart and mind in the days and weeks following Rayya’s diagnosis. Death — or the prospect of death — has a way of clearing away everything that is not real, and in that space of stark and utter realness, I was faced with this truth: I do not merely love Rayya; I am in love with Rayya.”
(Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)
“Here is where we stand now: Rayya and I are together. I love her, and she loves me. I’m walking through this cancer journey with her, not only as her friend, but as her partner. I am exactly where I need to be — the only place I can be.” (RELATED: Elizabeth Gilbert, Author Of ‘Eat, Pray, Love,’ Is Getting Divorced)
In July, Gilbert announced she was getting divorced from her husband of 12 years — the one she met at the end of her book.
“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. As David Foster Wallace once wrote: ‘The truth will set you free — but not until it’s had its way with you.’ Yes, it has been hard. Yes, the truth has had its way with us. And yes, the truth still stands.)”
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