W
hen Renea Shulman met Michael
Pearl during college in the mid-
1980s, he was dating her then-best
friend. They became friends and the group
would get together sometimes. But after college,
they lost track of each other.
The second time they met, Michael was
married. The time after that, Renea had gotten
married.
Finally, they became friends. Both had had
children and gotten divorced.
“We’
d see each other at the gym; we’
d go for
coffee,
” Renea says.
At first, they didn’
t want a romantic rela-
tionship. “I didn’
t want to ruin our friendship,
”
Renea says. “He had become a very good
friend.
”
But then they started dating. Not only did
Renea fall in love, but her children did, too.
“Even before we were dating, when Michael
came over, Max [now 11] and Ari [almost 10]
would beg for him to sleep over,
” Renea says.
24 | APRIL 30 • 2020
When
Michael
Met Renea
Three decades, a couple of marriages
and an out-of-state job couldn’t stop
this pair from fi
nally falling in love.
LYNNE KONSTANTIN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAY DREIFUS
Celebrate!