'Eat, Pray, Love' Author Elizabeth Gilbert Reveals She's in Love With Woman With Cancer

— -- When Elizabeth Gilbert announced in July that she had split with her husband, fans didn't understand why. Now the "Eat, Pray, Love" author is revealing just why the marriage didn't work.

Gilbert wrote about falling in love with her estranged husband, Jose Nunes, changing his name to Felipe in her bestselling memoir. On Facebook, the author said there's a reason why that marriage didn't work: She's fallen in love with someone else.

"This spring, I received news that would change my life forever," she wrote Wednesday. "My best friend Rayya Elias was diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer — a disease for which there is no cure.

"In the moment I first learned of Rayya's diagnosis, a trap door opened at the bottom of my heart (a trap door I didn't even know was there) and my entire existence fell straight through that door," Gilbert continued. "From that moment forward, everything became about HER. I cancelled everything in my life that could be cancelled, and I went straight to her side, where I have been ever since."

Gilbert, 47, added that although Elias is her "best friend," when faced with the idea that she could possibly die she realized, "I am in love with Rayya."

"For those of you who are doing the math here, and who are wondering if this situation is why my marriage came to an end this spring, the simple answer is yes," she admitted.

Gilbert also asked for privacy about the dissolution of her 9-year marriage.

The "Big Magic" author also explained why she went public with her new relationship with Elias.

"For reasons of my own integrity and sanity, I need to be able to walk into any room in the world with Rayya on my arm, feeling relaxed enough to stand comfortably in simple openness about who we actually are to each other," she wrote on Facebook. "If I can't be my true self ... then things will very quickly get messy and weird and stupid in my life."

Gilbert concluded her note, writing, "truth is the force that guides us to where we need to be in life, but love is the power that heals us once we arrive there."