Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert’s partner Rayya Elias dies of cancer
EAT Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert has posted a loving tribute to her lesbian partner, who she left her husband for 16 months ago, after she died of cancer.
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AUTHOR Elizabeth Gilbert has written a heartbreaking tribute to her partner Rayya Elias, who has died of cancer.
Gilbert shocked many when she announced 16 months ago that she was leaving her second husband Jose Nunes — who she wrote about in her book Eat Pray Love — for her best friend.
Gilbert said at the time that Elias’ pancreatic cancer diagnosis made her realise her true affection for her friend.
“She was my love, my heart, my best friend, my teacher, my rebel, my angel, my protector, my challenger, my partner, my muse, my wizard, my surprise, my gift, my comet, my liberator, my rock star, my completely impossible noncooperator, my otherworldly visitor, my spiritual portal, and my baby. I loved you so much,” Gilbert wrote on Instagram. “Thank you for letting me walk with you right to the edge of the river. It has been the greatest honour of my life. I would tell you to rest in peace, but I know that you always found peace boring. May you rest in excitement. I will always love you.”
Just days earlier, Gilbert posted a beautiful picture of the couple celebrating New Year.
“Happy New Year, everyone. You made it. We made it. Blessed be,” she wrote.
Gilbert’s 2006 memoir Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across, Italy, India and Indonesia told the story of her year of travel after divorcing her first husband, Michael Cooper.
The book was a huge hit, spending more than 200 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List, and selling more than 10 million copies worldwide.
In 2010, the book was turned into a movie starring Julia Roberts as Gilbert and Jarvier Bardem as Nunes.
She married Nunes in 2007.
But in September 2016 she wrote a Facebook post in which she revealed she had left Nunes for Elias.
“I do not merely love Rayya; I am in love with Rayya. And I have no more time for denying that truth. The thought of someday sitting in a hospital room with her, holding her hand and watching her slide away, without ever having let her (or myself!) know the extent of my true feelings for her ... well, that thought was unthinkable,” she wrote. “So. 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.”
Gilbert’s first piece of writing that spawned a movie was her essay on working in a New York bar, which was turned into the film Coyote Ugly.
Originally published as Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert’s partner Rayya Elias dies of cancer
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