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

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