While it may seem like Gal Gadot just popped up out of nowhere, the Wonder Woman actress has been a Hollywood regular for more than a decade. Prior to her blockbuster stardom, she was a model and had roles in several major films including Red Notice and five of the Fast & Furious movies, in which she played Gisele Yashar, a former intelligence operative who helps Dominic Toretto and his team.
Unlike some other press-shy celebrities, Gadot actually seems to be pretty public about her life. She's active on social media and rarely shies away from an interview, especially when she gets to talk about her family and husband, Jaron Varsano.
Gadot and Varsano Met at a Yoga Retreat
Gadot grew up in Petah Tikva, a small town in the Central District of Israel with her parents and younger sister. At just 18, after years of modeling, she won the 2004 Miss Israel pageant before going on to compete in the Miss Universe contest later that year. Two years later, she fulfilled two years of mandatory service in the Israel Defense Forces as a combat fitness instructor. While serving, Gadot met her husband, Jaron Varsano, who was a real estate developer at the time.
According to a 2020 interview with Vogue, the two met “in the desert at this chakra/yoga retreat type of party. And he was too cool for school," Gadot said. "Like, we were in the same group of friends, but I didn’t know him and he didn’t know me. And something happened kind of from the first moment we started talking. When we got home, I was like, ‘Is this too early to call you? I want to have a date.’ Then we go out, and by the second date he told me, ‘I’m going to marry you. I’m going to wait for two years, but we’re going to get married.’ I was like, ‘Fine.’ ”
“We were in a very unique laboratory—a desert retreat in the south of Israel. And both she and I were at a stage in our lives where we were thinking about what is love and what is a relationship," Varsano added. "We started talking at 10 p.m., and we kissed at sunrise, and we held hands on the drive back to Tel Aviv. At that moment, we were just glued together. It was beautiful.”
As far as long-term Hollywood couples, few can compete. Shortly after meeting, the two married and have been together ever since—no speculatory breakup tabloid news in sight.
The Pair Have Four Children
While Gadot plays a superhero in her movies, it can sometimes feel like she's the same in real life. Not only is she a working mom, but she has four daughters to look after. According to Death on the Nile director Kenneth Branagh, Gadot always makes motherhood and work flow seamlessly.
“I get the sense that she feels very secure in her family life: She knows what they are, who they are, and that they are with her. And I think that lets her be adventurous in her work and also at ease in her work," Branagh told Vogue. "She’s a serious person, so she knows the world is a tricky and challenging place from time to time, but there is this ongoing sense of fun about her, and it seems to come out of the wellspring of family. She is determined to smell the roses along the way, and it makes her an exceptionally sort of effortlessly positive energy to be around.”
Varsano seems just as devoted to his family life as Gadot. While he was a real estate developer when they met, he hung up his hat to work alongside his wife in the entertainment business when the family moved to L.A. Like Gadot, he's very active on social media and has publicly recognized his wife as the extraordinary woman she is on more than one occasion.
"I'm so lucky to be married to a strong independent woman," he wrote in an Instagram post on Women's Day in 2018. "I learn from her on a daily basis, she empowers me and helps me become a better version of myself. Our relationship is based on equality and mutual respect. Her goals are just as important as mine. Her dreams are as important as mine. … Love, respect, and equality are the key ingredients for our society to become a nursing grounds for a better future."
Varsano and Gadot Started a Production Company
Like many other Hollywood couples, Gadot and Varsano started their own production company in 2019. The company, Pilot Wave, is producing several films including Heart of Stone, Cleopatra, and Wonder Woman 3, which has since been canceled.
“As producers, we want to help bring stories that have inspired us to life,” Gadot and Varsano said in an interview with Deadline in 2019. “Pilot Wave will create content that promotes the perspectives and experiences of unique people and produce impactful stories aimed at igniting the imagination.”
