‘Eat, Pray, Love’ Author Separates From Husband — Writer Of Bestselling Memoir, Elizabeth Gilbert, Says Divorce Is ‘Amicable’


The author of bestselling book Eat, Pray, Love announced she is separating from her husband, her love interest in real life, as well as in the widely-praised travel memoir.

Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of blockbuster travel memoir Eat, Pray, Love announced Friday that she was leaving her husband, who she had met during her around-the-world trip that was the inspiration behind the runaway hit book. Gilbert, 46, confirmed the divorce was on amicable terms.

Elizabeth Gilbert and her husband, José Nunes, had been together for more than 12 years. Nunes was the inspiration for the character Felipe in Eat, Pray, Love — the incredible man Elizabeth’s character meets in Bali after divorcing her first husband, reported PerezHilton. The romantic scenario that Gilbert penned in the book actually mirrored the real life of the author.

Hundreds of thousands of diehard fans of the book, which was later made into a movie by the same name, were convinced that Gilbert had been blessed with a fairytale romance, one that is meant for the history books and not only lasts until “death do us part,” but goes beyond. Many fans were left grief stricken and heartbroken after reading about the news of the split, which Gilbert herself posted on her Facebook account.

“I am separating from the man whom many of you know as ­’Felipe’ — the man whom I fell in love with at the end of the EAT PRAY LOVE journey. He has been my dear companion for over 12 years, and they have been wonderful years.

“He has been my dear companion for over 12 years, and they have been wonderful years.”

Gilbert categorically noted to her fans that she was sharing the news about the separation because she has pretty much chronicled and shared her entire journey of life and felt her fans deserved to know the recent change in her personal life. The author hasn’t divulged the exact reason behind the split. However, she did note that the separation was very amicable. She added the reasons were very personal, reported Page Six. Speaking to People Magazine in 2015, Gilbert said the following.

“There’s a direct line from age-at-marriage to contentment. You almost can’t wait too long. We were pretty long in the tooth when we found each other and we had lived out a lot of our stupidity already.”

Elizabeth Gilbert rose to fame after her travel memoir, Eat, Pray Love, received critical acclamation and international attention. The book tells the story of how Ms. Gilbert, then 32, travelled to Italy, where she discovered and savored the local food, then spent four months exploring spirituality in the mystical land of India, finding inner peace while doing the most mundane and menial tasks like scrubbing temple floors. She then arrived in Bali, finally finding love after a messy divorce that took an heavy emotional toll. In real life, Gilbert married José Nunes, from Brazil, in 2007 and they lived in Frenchtown, about 60 miles west of New York, reported The Telegraph. The couple used to run a shop called Two Buttons that sold clothes which were imported from various parts of Asia.

This is the second divorce for Gilbert. At the age of 32, she had divorced her first husband and then decided to go on the life-altering journey. She doesn’t have any children from either of the marriages.

Gilbert’s journey, chronicled in the book, has undoubtedly inspired multiple generations of women, from various backgrounds, to search for spiritual enlightenment. Many have recreated the mesmerizing journey, while quite a few have confirmed they strongly related to the stress of a divorce and the steps of recovery discussed.

Eat, Pray, Love, which was a post-divorce memoir of spiritual and romantic discovery, was made into a feature film of the same name. While the book was published in 2006 and instantly became a hit, the movie was released in 2010 and starred Julia Roberts, but couldn’t win big at the box office.

In the story, the main character falls in love with Felipe, who is a pseudonym for José Nunes. The man is 17-years her senior. Gilbert once revealed that Nunes was her “favorite souvenir” from her journey.

[Photo by Mat Hayward/Getty Images]

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