Content creator Daniel Amit and former hostage Emily Damari said their relationship is moving quickly toward marriage, with the wedding set for less than three months from now. In their first joint interview, aired Sunday on Guy Pines’ “Good Night with Guy Pines,” they discussed how they met, how the romance developed, and their hopes to build a family in Israel.
Amit recalled first meeting Damari at a special gathering she hosted for women who survived captivity, including Romi Gonen and Mia Regev. Damari said she had followed Amit’s recipes online for years and had repeatedly made her pasta dishes. Amit said that only days after October 7, while cooking for evacuees from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, people told her there was a kidnapped woman who loved her content and was named Emily, and later she found that they had already exchanged many messages.
What began with Instagram messages and continued into private conversations turned into a relationship. Amit said she started looking forward to Damari’s messages and initially thought it would be a brief fling. Damari said the turning point came when Amit texted her the day after they exchanged phone numbers to say she was eating steak, which led to endless conversations, video calls, and late-night talks while Amit was in Thailand. “When we realize this is happening, we realize there is probably something beyond it,” Damari said.
Amit said she kept the relationship quiet because people thought she had “lost her mind,” and she did not want it exposed before she was ready to date a man in the future. Damari said neighbors eventually noticed them walking their dog at 3 a.m. Amit also described an awkward start with Damari’s family while Damari was still in captivity, when her brother Tom asked her to stop posting because it could endanger Emily. Now, Amit said the engagement reflects a shared goal: “We are not 22, it is important for us to build a home in Israel and have children here,” she said, adding that she wants Damari to know she plans to be with her “for the rest of my life.”
