Published: 23 November 2021
Last updated: 4 March 2024
When the ex-wife of former Chelsea manager Avram Grant and Haredi movie and music star decided to get married, what followed was a public soap opera
SHE’S THE EX-WIFE of former Chelsea manager Avram Grant, famed for her bizarre stunts on Israeli TV. He’s the acclaimed frum actor who’s starred in the Netflix hit Shtisel.
Now Tzofit Grant and Shuli Rand have found love and tied the knot — but in an extraordinary wedding that required the approval of 100 rabbis.
The special permission was required because Rand’s first wife Michal, with whom he has seven children, refused to agree to a get.
In such circumstances, a man can be granted a “heter mea rabbonim”, a rarely-used rabbinical device that is not available to a woman whose husband refuses to give her a get.
The couple’s relationship has been the focus of extensive press coverage for a fascinated Israeli public since they went public several months ago.
Mrs Grant first entered the limelight when her former husband Avram left for England to become Chelsea manager in 2007, and she stayed behind with their two children, son Danny, now 27, and daughter Romi, 24.
She quickly grabbed public attention with a career as a TV presenter that saw her dubbed the “Israeli Ruby Wax”. Her stunts included drinking her own urine to assess its supposed health benefits, and submerging herself in a bath of molten chocolate. She and Avram Grant got divorced in 2016.
Mrs Grant, 57, is described in the Israeli media as secular, but in an interview last month said she had always kept kosher and was beginning to observe Shabbat, although she is not Haredi.
The wedding took place at a secluded location not far from Jerusalem, with Mrs Grant barely recognisable from her TV appearances in a full-length wedding dress with long sleeves and a high shirt-collar neckline.
