A Emotional Ending
"We're Still Hanani and Hadassi": Hadassa Ben Ari Opens Up About her Divorce
Hadassa Ben Ari shares intimate details about maintaining a positive co-parenting relationship and navigating life after her high-profile divorce from Hanan Ben Ari.
A year after her high-profile divorce from Israeli singer Hanan Ben Ari, Hadassah Ben Ari, a writer and creative professional, is speaking out for the first time about the breakup and the life that followed.
In an interview on the program Ulpan Shishi, Hadassah Ben Ari candidly discussed her ongoing relationship with her ex-husband, revealing that they remain in regular contact.
"Just today, we were texting about moments he had with the kids yesterday," she said. "I told him they told me this morning how meaningful it was for them to be with him. I said, 'For moments like these, we live.' I share every process with him, lots of laughs about the kids. I'll always send Hanani a picture and say, 'She said this, he did that.'"
When asked if she still calls him "Hanani," a term of endearment, she responded, "Yes. In the end, we were always Hanani and Hadasi, and for our children, I think we'll always be."
Reflecting on the most difficult moments since the divorce, she shared her struggle with loneliness.
"I don't like being alone. On Friday night, when I go with the children to prayer and I come back here and I have to do Kiddush, I say, 'Wow, it's like this family now, on this Shabbat, doesn't have a father.' I never imagined my life like this. It's like another nail in the dream. The dream of a mom and a dad and one family fell apart for me."
She revealed that a large family was always a shared goal for them.
"I always wanted a family. Both of us come from families with six kids. I wanted that, and Hanan was, of course, an active partner. In the end, our family changed shape, but we have children. And processing the separation is part of it, what is it like to be a pair of parents who are not a couple? That is also part of the separation."