Author Elizabeth Gilbert 'in love' with terminally ill female friend

Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert, who split from her husband of nine years in July, says she's in love with her best friend, a woman named Rayya Elias, who was recently diagnosed with incurable pancreatic and liver cancer.

Gilbert says in a lengthy Facebook post Wednesday the terminal diagnosis uncovered her true feelings for her longtime friend, and those feelings led to Gilbert's divorce from Jose Nunes, whom she described falling for at the end of her best-selling memoir and follow-up book, Committed.

"But something happened to my heart and mind in the days and weeks following Rayya's diagnosis," Gilbert wrote in the post. "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."

The posting was confirmed by Gilbert's publicist at Riverhead Books, Jynne Martin.

Gilbert says she is making her relationship with Elias public because such "truth and transparency" make her life easier and more ethical.

She asked her readers for their love.