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NEW YORK, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert announced on Facebook that she and her best friend and fellow author, Rayya Elias, have entered into a romantic relationship in the face of Elias' cancer diagnosis. Gilbert, who separated from her husband of 12 years in June, said in the post that the truth "could not be ignored."
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Gilbert said Elias' pancreatic and liver cancer diagnosis was the catalyst for her revelation.
"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. And I have no more time for denying that truth," she said.
Gilbert also said her personal need to live "in truth" is what motivated her to share her story.
"Truth and transparency not only make my life more ethical, but also easier. (Why easier? Because untruth is always complicating, and truth — no matter what the consequences — is always strangely simplifying.) So that is why Rayya and I have decided together to speak up publicly now — both about her cancer and about our love for each other. It's for the sake of our own integrity, but it's also intended to make our lives simpler," she said.
Eat, Pray, Love was translated into a 2010 film starring Julia Roberts, James Franco, Viola Davis, and Javier Bardem.
Gilbert's most recent book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, was published in 2015.
