The Real End Of 'Eat, Pray, Love': 5 Shocking Truths About Elizabeth Gilbert And José Nunes' Divorce

The fairy-tale ending chronicled in Elizabeth Gilbert’s blockbuster memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, was a global phenomenon, but the real-life love story between Gilbert and the Brazilian businessman she called "Felipe" ultimately took a surprising and dramatic turn. As of December 2025, the couple, known publicly as Elizabeth Gilbert and José Nunes, have been divorced for nearly a decade, a separation that stunned fans worldwide.

The dissolution of their marriage in 2016 was not a quiet parting; it was a profound, public transformation that revealed a completely new chapter in Gilbert's life, one that involved falling in love with her best friend. The enduring curiosity surrounding the man who was the centerpiece of the book’s "Love" section, José Nunes, continues to drive searches, especially now that Gilbert's latest work is providing a deeper context to her journey of self-discovery and relationships.

Elizabeth Gilbert and José Nunes: A Complete Profile

The relationship between Elizabeth Gilbert and José Nunes was the culmination of a highly publicized journey of healing and self-rediscovery. Nunes, known as "Felipe" in the memoir, represented the unexpected, grounding love that Gilbert found after her painful first divorce.

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Elizabeth Gilbert Biography (The Author)

• Full Name: Elizabeth M. Gilbert
• Born: July 18, 1969 (Waterbury, Connecticut, USA)
• Occupation: Journalist, Novelist, Memoirist, Essayist
• Notable Works: Eat, Pray, Love (2006), The Signature of All Things (2013), Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear (2015), City of Girls (2019)
• Marriages/Partnerships:
  • Michael Cooper (m. 1994; div. 2002)
  • José Nunes (m. 2007; div. 2016)
  • Rayya Elias (Commitment Ceremony 2016; Partner until 2018)
• Career Highlight: Eat, Pray, Love was on the New York Times Best Seller List for 199 weeks and has sold over 30 million copies globally.

José Nunes Biography (The Man Behind 'Felipe')

• Full Name: José Nunes (sometimes referred to as Jose Manuel Nunes)
• Age/Birth Year: Born around 1953 (He was 63 when the split was announced in 2016).
• Nationality: Brazilian
• Occupation: Businessman (Specifically, a jewelry importer in the memoir).
• Role in Memoir: The subject of the "Love" section of Eat, Pray, Love, where he is given the pseudonym "Felipe."
• Current Status: Divorced from Elizabeth Gilbert since 2016. He has maintained a private life away from the public eye post-divorce, a stark contrast to Gilbert's ongoing public career.

The Real-Life Ending: Why the 'Felipe' Chapter Closed

The story of Gilbert and Nunes began in Bali, Indonesia, the final stop on Gilbert’s post-divorce journey of self-discovery across Italy, India, and Indonesia. Their romance was slow, gentle, and resisted the traditional structure of marriage, a theme explored in Gilbert's follow-up book, Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage.

Despite their initial reluctance to marry, they wed in 2007 to allow Nunes, a Brazilian national, to legally reside in the United States, a requirement following a change in his visa status. Their marriage lasted nearly a decade, but the relationship came to an abrupt end in July 2016.

The reason for the divorce was a pivotal, unexpected shift in Gilbert’s personal life: she fell in love with her longtime best friend, the Syrian-born author, musician, and filmmaker Rayya Elias.

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This revelation was a profound moment of personal truth for Gilbert, who stated that her feelings for Elias were "so deep and so sudden" that they caused the immediate end of her marriage to Nunes. She described the decision as one made from a place of necessity, realizing she needed to be with Elias, particularly after Elias was diagnosed with incurable pancreatic and liver cancer.

Gilbert and Elias held a private commitment ceremony in 2017. Elias passed away in January 2018, leaving Gilbert to navigate a complex, public journey through grief and loss after the most unexpected love story of her life.

The Legacy of Love and Loss in the New Memoir

While the divorce from José Nunes was a closed chapter, its emotional resonance echoes through Gilbert's subsequent work. The entire trajectory of her life—from the chaos of her first marriage to the finding of "Felipe," and then the surprising love with Rayya Elias—is a testament to the unpredictable nature of the human heart and the continuous evolution of self.

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The most current and relevant context for the Elizabeth Gilbert story is her latest memoir, All the Way to the River, which is scheduled for release in September 2025.

This new work, her first non-fiction book in a decade, focuses heavily on her intense and devastating relationship with Rayya Elias and the subsequent period of grieving her death.

Recontextualizing the 'Love' Chapter

The new memoir doesn't directly focus on José Nunes, but it undeniably recontextualizes the "Love" chapter of Eat, Pray, Love. The initial journey was about finding balance and a gentle, grounding love with Nunes. The later journey was about radical honesty and finding the courage to embrace a love that defied all previous expectations and boundaries.

For fans of the original book, the new memoir provides an essential bridge, showing that the quest for self-discovery and authentic love, which began in that Italian apartment and ended on that Balinese beach with Nunes, is a never-ending process. Gilbert’s decision to leave a stable, loving marriage for a deeper, albeit more complicated, truth underscores the core message of her work: to live an authentic, fearlessly creative life.

José Nunes, the private Brazilian businessman who inspired the character "Felipe," remains an entity of quiet dignity. Having been thrust into the global spotlight through a book and a film adaptation (where he was played by Javier Bardem), Nunes retreated from the public eye, choosing a life away from the relentless media scrutiny that followed the Eat, Pray, Love phenomenon. His silence is a powerful counterpoint to Gilbert’s public sharing, allowing him the privacy he never sought.

Ultimately, the story of Elizabeth Gilbert and José Nunes is not one of failure, but of transition. It is a powerful reminder that "happily ever after" is not a static destination but a series of evolving truths, where even the most beautiful chapter must sometimes close to make way for the next, more authentic one. The legacy of their time together remains a testament to finding love after loss, even as Gilbert’s life continues to inspire millions through its relentless pursuit of honesty and emotional courage.