Gilbert Reveals Near-Murder Confession in New Memoir

Elizabeth Gilbert has confessed that she once seriously contemplated poisoning her partner during a tumultuous relationship in New York City, the bestselling author disclosed in her new memoir, All the Way to the River, published today.

The candid revelation underscores Gilbert’s ongoing exploration of love, addiction and loss and arrives nearly twenty years after her breakout work, Eat, Pray, Love.

Memoir’s Dark Core All the Way to the River chronicles Gilbert’s intense romance with her hairdresser-turned-partner Rayya Elias amid Elias’s terminal pancreatic and liver cancer diagnosis. In brutally honest passages, Gilbert admits buying drugs on the Lower East Side, enabling Rayya’s substance abuse and, at her breaking point, plotting to disguise sleeping pills as morphine to end Rayya’s life.

From Joyous Journeys to Grief Gilbert rose to fame in 2006 with Eat, Pray, Love, which documented her spiritual quest across three continents. Here, she lays bare her “sex/love addiction,” her descent into Xanax, cocaine and ecstasy, and the emotional trauma of watching Rayya refuse treatment and spiral into paranoia and aggression.

Mixed Reactions and Upcoming Tour Advance readers praise the memoir’s raw honesty and psychological insight, though some criticize its graphic content and New Age spiritual interludes. Gilbert embarks on a 23-city book tour this month, with producers reportedly eyeing a film adaptation.

• New memoir details nearly homicidal thoughts amid caregiving crisis
• Author frames confession within broader themes of addiction and devotion
• Tour and adaptation plans follow hot on publication’s heels