Al Pacino's ex Meital Dohan now says they split because she wanted to have kids, claims miser jibe was a joke
After calling her ex-boyfriend Al Pacino, 39 years her senior, an "elderly" man who “didn’t like to spend money", Israeli actress Meital Dohan has backpedaled on her controversial comments on their split, admitting in a new interview that she was kidding.
Speaking to Daily Mail, Dohan said that her candid remarks from her interview with Israel’s La’Isha magazine, following the couple's split, were misconstrued. She insisted that she didn’t mean it exactly like how it came across.
"I was trying to explain that we really tried to make it work," she said. "It was an amazing, generous and beautiful love. What happened between us was bigger than materialistic things like flowers or chocolates or diamonds or cars."
After the interview was published back in February, many people started slamming the actress by calling her a golddigger who was only after the 'Godfather' actor's money. They dated for two years. In the latest interview, Dohan said that she has learnt to shrug off the vicious comments.
“Any woman who dates a powerful man, they’ll say she’s a gold digger. It’s another stereotype, and people can think of me what they want,” she told the publication. "The relationship between us wasn’t based on anything like that. Not even slightly. It wasn’t about any kind of rational benefits. Neither of us did it in a strategic way. It was pure love."
She said that the relationship was doomed from the start as Dohan, 40, got into a relationship with a man almost double her age without thinking about the consequences. But when she began feeling the window for motherhood narrowing, she knew she had to look for a different partner, because Pacino, who already was a father of three, did not want to be a father again.
"It was one of the most incredible love stories of my life, but there was an acknowledgment that we’re both at different places in our lives," she said. "Two years is a long time and I was like: 'We love each other, but where is this going? I really want to have kids.' It’s harder when someone’s that much older than you, because I still have a family to build, while he already has a family."
Dohan said despite all the complications in their relationship, which started two years ago, it all boiled down to one fight that spelled the end.
"We had a little fight about something. That’s what started it. And then it grew into something bigger. It was my initiation. It was: 'Where are we going with this? It’s been two years. Are we going to the next step or are we going backwards? Are we going to part ways?' We didn’t say that it’s not working, because it was still kind of working, but we were just saying that maybe it’s time to move on. It was a mutual decision," she said.
Although she is "having a corona break" from dating at the moment, she admitted that she is not ready to see her ex with another woman. "Not right now, I’d be very jealous,’ she says. ‘But hopefully that will pass," Dohan said.
The 'Weeds' actress created headlines after she told La'Isha magazine that it was not easy to date "a man so old, even Al Pacino." "The age gap is difficult, yes. I tried to deny it, but now he is already an elderly man, to be honest. So even with all my love, it didn't last," Dohan told the publication.
When she was asked by the magazine if she was at least showered with expensive gifts during the years that they were together, she laughed. "How can I say politely that he didn't like to spend money?... He only bought me flowers," Dohan added.