Elizabeth Gilbert is best known as the author of Eat Pray Love, one of the most indulgent of the pseudo-spiritual memoirs from that era. Gilbert basically got paid a lot of money from a publisher to travel around the world, look for a boyfriend and wrap it up in some kind of spiritual reawakening. Gilbert is also known for having a messy personal life – in Eat Pray Love, she dumps her husband for no real reason before she goes on her spiritual jaunt, where she met a guy, Jose Nunes. She and Jose were married for nine years until she cheated on him and dumped him (in 2016) for her best friend, Rayya Elias. Elias passed away a year ago from cancer. So now Gilbert is dating Elias’ best friend, a man named Simon MacArthur. My lord. She posted this message to Instagram:
Dear Ones: It’s a beautiful spring day in my corner of the world, life is everywhere bursting forth with a sense of rebirth and renewal, and this seems like as good a moment as any to tell you that I am in love. Please meet my sweetheart, Mr. Simon MacArthur. He’s a photographer from the U.K. — a beautiful man who has been a friend of mine for years. (Even more touchingly, Simon was a beloved friend of Rayya’s for decades. They lived together in London over 30 years ago, and they adored each other forever like siblings. This, as you can imagine, means the world to me.)
Of late, Simon and I have found our way to each other’s arms. And now here we are, and his heart has been such a warm place for me to land. I share this news publicly, despite the fact that our love story is so new and young and tender,for a few reasons. For one thing, I just want to say: If you see me walking around with a tall handsome man on my arm, don’t be buggin’. Just know that your girl is happy, and following her heart. But also this: I will always share anything personal about my life, if it could help someone else feel more normal about their life.
SO…if you have lost a loved one to death, and you thought you’d never love again, but you are feeling a pull of attraction toward someone new, and you’re not sure if that’s OK? Let me normalize it for you. Let me say: It’s Ok. Your heart is a giant cathedral. Let it open. Let it love. Do not let your gorgeous loyalty to the deceased stop you from experiencing the marvels and terrors of your short, mortal, precious life. It’s OK to live, and to love.
Or…if you are falling in love in middle age and it’s terrifying, because you feel just as dumb and crazy and excited and insecure as you did at 16? Well, let me normalize this for you. It’s OK. You will always feel 16 when you are falling in love. Or…if you once loved a man,and then you loved a woman, and then you loved a man, and you’re wondering if that’s ok? Well, darling. Let me normalize THAT for you. It’s OK. Love who you love. It’s all OK, and it’s all impossible to control, and it’s all an adventure that I would not miss. That’s all I wanted to say. Onward, and I love you all.
I imagine she’ll get at least two “spiritual” memoirs out of all of this. All of these spiritual journeys and this whole time, all she needed was one therapist to tell her that she’s a narcissistic drama queen who needs to be alone for two seconds before jumping into the next all-consuming love affair. There, I did it for free! I mean, I don’t judge her for finding love after her partner passed away. I do judge her for monetizing her terror at being alone and for wrapping up her mid-life crisis as a wordy spiritual journey.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Instagram.
