Ofira Asayag Reveals Why She Blocked Eyal Berkowitz: “He Wrote Me Very Harsh Words”

Ofira Asayag on Eyal Berkowitz: “He sent me harsh words. I blocked him” / What really happened there / Keshet 12

Ofira Asayag and Eyal Berkowitz were for years an inseparable pair, not only on screen but also behind the scenes. After a long partnership and a close friendship, a rift formed between the two following Asayag’s decision to continue broadcasting their shared show after the October 7 disaster, despite Berkowitz’s refusal to do so. As a result of that decision, not only did the program leave the air and later return in other versions hosted by Asayag alongside other presenters, but their long-standing friendship also ended, and to this day they do not speak.

In an interview on the program “What Really Happened There,” hosted by Erez Tal and to air tomorrow on Keshet 12, Asayag shared the decision she made to block her former close friend, בעקבות the harsh words he wrote to her. “After he saw me on screen once, he sent me a message that, only for my children’s sake, I won’t repeat the words he said, he wrote very harsh words to me,” Asayag said, adding what she has also said in the past: “At that moment I blocked him, I blocked him on WhatsApp, I blocked him on Instagram.”

Tal tried to understand exactly what words he had written to her, but Asayag did not elaborate and only stressed: “Very harsh words.” She then added: “He did not like the fact that I was sitting with someone else, with another woman. As he put it, I destroyed the brand the moment I went on television without him. I did not answer him. I kept working.”

Some time later, the two were invited to Keshet’s offices to bring their show back on air, but Berkowitz, she said, refused to return to television: “It ended with us being invited later, after I had already been on air without him for almost two months, we were invited to a meeting, ‘Come on, we’re going back to Friday at six.’ He said, ‘I’m not coming back.’”

The pair’s show, which first went on air in 2017 after they had co-hosted programs together since 2006, was ultimately taken off the air in December 2023. Berkowitz asked to cancel his contract with Keshet, moved to rival Reshet 13, and today hosts a show alongside Moriah Asraf. Asayag continued to host the program alongside rotating presenters and later co-hosted it with Chaim Levinson. Today she hosts the program alongside Eli Ohana and Berk Sari.