A single comment on a post Kati Giv'oni uploaded on Instagram prompted Gal Misgav to do something he had never done before: respond to an online troll. “One commenter wrote: ‘A whore will stay a whore. Who would want to be her partner?", Misgav recalls. “I answered him, ‘Hey, I’m her partner.’”
This is just one example of the complexity the couple have experienced during the nearly year they have been together, stemming from Giv'oni’s decision to speak openly about the period she worked in prostitution. “It doesn’t bother me what people write,” Misgav says. “I know who I am in this story. I care only about my close circle, and they are extremely supportive, accepting and loving."
Giv'oni: “Gal met me after I have come to terms with myself. If he had an issue with the chapter in my life when I worked in prostitution, he wouldn’t have gone out with me on a first date, or continued the relationship. If someone chooses to be with me, they choose me and every part of me."
How is the past present in your relationship today?
Misgav: “That chapter in her life? I have all the tools to deal with it."
Givoni: “Gal isn’t afraid. When I fall into anxiety, whether triggered by intimacy or by hard things I’ve experienced, he knows how to help me, holding a safe, protected space for me. I can cry, release, and he isn't startled. It’s so healing."
A man who does yoga
About a year and a half ago, Giv'oni disclosed, openly and in front of TV cameras, the path she took to prostitution and the many years during which she met men for money and led a double life.
Giv’oni (34), who runs a sales‑promotion business online, was born and raised in Petah Tikva. Her parents worked hard, and the family faced financial hardship.
The pivotal event in her life occurred at age 13: she fled home and hitched a ride with a 20‑year‑old neighborhood youth whom she knew. He locked her in an apartment, where he and a friend raped her.
The next day, Giv’oni went with her mother to the police station and filed a complaint. The case ended in a plea bargain and the two youths served two and a half years in prison.
She entered prostitution at age 19, during her military service. “I was sitting with friends at the base, and one of them told me she knew someone who worked as an escort and made lots of money,” she told Channel 12 News. “I heard that and said, ‘Wow, I need to do this.’
It seemed like the most logical thing; after the rape and until age 19 I found myself in many sexual experiences where I couldn’t say no. If you’re constantly forced to have sex with strangers when you don’t want to be there, why not make money from it? It was a kind of taking control of the trauma.”
Giv’oni googled a number for an escort agency, called, and the next day she began working. She worked there for six years, experiencing one meeting after another that left their mark on her.
A few months before going public, Giv’oni recorded the first episode of her podcast, "Imaginary Prison", which features guests with inspiring life stories. She could no longer live with the secret she had kept for years. She felt she had to share, to tell the world who she was, what led her into prostitution, and how she managed to leave a life that few succeed in escaping.
At the time she decided to share her story, she was involved in an unstable relationship. The couple was living together in his apartment in Tel Aviv. “We broke up and got back together a few times, and each time it was because he wasn’t comfortable with me sharing my story,” she says.
“He said, ‘I accept it, but what does it say about me if I’m dating someone who worked in prostitution?’ I told him that if he couldn’t accept me, I wouldn’t stay in the relationship, and he was inclined to accept. He had already told his parents about me."
“But then I released the podcast, and it completely shook him. I was invited to TV interviews, people started recognizing me everywhere, and recognizing him, too. He started getting messages on Instagram. He couldn’t handle it. I knew he was planning to propose, but he didn’t. Instead, he said he needed time to process everything. Around the same time, I found out he had been seeing other women. Two months later, we broke up."
Giv’oni moved out of their shared apartment and back in with her mother. She scaled back her business and saw a sharp drop in income. “I told myself: I’m 32 years old, I don’t have a home, I don’t have money, my professional future is unclear, and everyone knows I worked in prostitution. I didn’t know how I’d ever find a partner. At the end of the day, I live in Israel, there’s stigma. It really scared me."
At that point, she decided to open a Tinder profile, but with new intentions. “I had always dated successful men because I was afraid of financial instability, and that fear is what also led me into prostitution in the first place.
"I always ran away from people who wanted me, because I felt like I was losing control. I went for emotionally distant men because touch felt dangerous. This time, I wanted someone sensitive, someone who touches, who dances, who does yoga. I figured I’d find him at festivals."
'I enjoyed dancing with you'
That’s how she ended up at Midbar Festival, held during Sukkot a year ago. Gal Misgav, 38, also attended. He works in business development in high-tech and creates spaces for healing and personal empowerment.
“At the start of the war, I broke up with my fiancée,” he says. “After the breakup, I kept looking for a replacement in every woman I dated. Only two months before the festival did I finally let go. I told myself I’d be open to meeting new people and would let the universe guide me."
He went to the festival because a close friend asked him to assist in one of the workshops. “That’s where I saw Kati for the first time,” he recalls. “I could tell she was going through something. I walked up and asked if she needed help. She said ‘no,’ so I moved on. Later, I saw her again on the dance floor, and we danced together. But it didn’t go anywhere because I was involved with someone else at the festival.
After the festival ended, Misgav saw an Instagram story that Giv’oni posted with a mutual friend. “They were gossiping about some guy who had followed her. She seemed sweet, so I sent her a message: ‘No idea who that guy is, but I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed dancing with you'."
Giv'oni: “When Gal messaged me, I looked at his Instagram and saw pictures of him doing yoga and hiking through jungles. I liked that. I was curious what it would be like to hang out with someone like that."
They began messaging and arranged to meet. “After we started talking, I looked at her Instagram and saw the article about her personal story,” Misgav says. “I thought to myself that I really watned to meet her. Honestly, I assumed she was married."
Giv'oni: “They mistakenly wrote in the article that I was married."
Misgav: “Either way, she struck me as an interesting person, and I wanted to get to know her better. I didn’t want to dive too deep into her story; I didn’t think it would be right to learn about her from other sources."
Giv'oni: “We set up a meeting for Friday at 4 p.m. in a park in Hod HaSharon. I came with my dog, he brought a blanket and a thermos of cocoa; that was very simple, and completely different from what I was used to. We talked for an hour, and then each of us had other plans, which left us wanting more. That evening, he texted that he wanted to meet again, and I told him, ‘I’m coming over.’ I went to his place and stayed there for three days."
Three days!
Misgav: “Once I realized she wasn’t married, my intention toward her changed. So when she texted that she was coming over, I told the friends who were with me at the time, that I had to go."
Giv'oni: “That weekend felt like a retreat. We did yoga, he did a card reading for me, gave me sound healing."
Misgav: “We decided to leave sexuality out of that encounter."
Why?
Giv'oni: “At that point, I realized I had trouble setting boundaries, that I could end up having sex even if I didn’t actually want to. I was scared. I told him, ‘If I want to touch you, I will. If I want to kiss you, I’ll kiss you.’ He respected that, and that’s what allowed me to get closer to him. If he had tried to kiss me, I wouldn’t have seen him again."
Misgav: “As a guy who grew up in Israel, went into the army, and became the typical Israeli man, I was always very goal‑oriented. For years I’ve worked on changing that mindset: that in every encounter with a woman that may involve sex, there should be space for conversation, for asking, for respect, for checking whether it’s okay to have sexual intercourse. There are women who couldn’t believe a man would stop and ask them."
Giv'oni: “A few days later, when we were already in bed together, he gave me a boundary‑setting exercise. He said, ‘I’m going to ask if I can touch you in a certain place, and you’re going to say 'no'."
Where did that come from?
Misgav: “I realized words weren’t enough. If I wanted to create safe intimacy with someone who had shared so vulnerably what she had been through, I needed to act. It was also a signal to myself to slow down, to be more attentive, to understand this was a different kind of experience."
Giv'oni: “The world taught me that this is what I’m supposed to give, that this is what intimacy is supposed to look like. I have to make a change within myself, to understand I have value, and I have the right to say what I want."
Misgav: “I feel closeness through touch, and Kati needs her space. When she sleeps hugging a pillow, for example, I feel like it creates a barrier between us, and that makes me feel insecure. We’re doing a lot of work around that."
Sounds like this isn’t just a relationship, it’s a healing space.
Misgav: “I couldn’t be with someone who isn’t doing inner work. Kati has tremendous awareness and a deep desire to grow and heal, even when she’s faced with complex, painful experiences."
Giv'oni: “What I love about Gal is his awareness, his depth, and our open communication. We share everything, even the scariest, most embarrassing things. That’s one of the foundations of our relationship."
Avoiding triggers
The couple recently moved into a quiet, beautiful home in Binyamina. Their relationship began at full speed. “Within six months I bought an engagement ring and we announced we were getting married. I got carried away,” Misgav says.
Givo'ni: “It was too much. We made so many plans, after three weeks we flew to Madrid. Suddenly I panicked. What if I don’t want this? I’d disappoint him. I felt like I didn’t have a choice in the relationship. I came close to ending it.
"Then we went to a park, and Gal led me through a ‘release expectations’ ritual. We let go of all the expectations we’d placed on this relationship. It helped so much; it freed me. That freedom allowed me to choose him again."
How curious were you about her past?
Misgave: "It felt strange to ask questions. Even now, it’s hard. I don’t want to trigger her or dig into the past."
Was it something you considered before committing to the relationship?
“I didn’t ignore it. I thought about it, I talked to friends. Early on, I admired her courage. My current concern is privacy. Kati shares a lot about her life, which includes mine and the lives of people close to me."
Giv'oni: “Weren’t you afraid I’d go back to prostitution? People used to tell me, ‘If you hit a financial crisis, you’ll go back to it,’ and it would drive me crazy, because I’m not there anymore. Once I recognized my abilities, I knew I wouldn’t go back."
Misgav: “Not at all. The fact that you went public with your story gives me confidence that it won’t happen again."
Giv'oni: “Weren’t you worried about STDs?”
Misgav: “You told me there weren’t any, and I believed you. Just like with my previous partners, we get tested and everything’s fine."
Giv'oni: “Weren't you afraid you’d run into people I had been with?”
Misgav: “That does trigger me. A month ago it actually happened, I found out from Kati’s Instagram story that someone from her past had reached out. It was hard, partly because I wanted to protect her. It brings up the pain of what she went through, and I want to be there for her."
Giv'oni: “My past partners were always afraid I was hiding things or would be unfaithful. I was in a relationship during part of the time I engaged in prostitution, and there were a lot of lies and secrets. Now I’m on the opposite extreme, I need to share everything. With Gal, this is the first relationship I’ve had with zero lies. Radical honesty."
Misgav: “I choose to believe her. At the beginning, there was a moment when Kati logged into my Instagram and read my messages. That crossed a line and created a breach of trust.”
Giv'oni: “I’m the one who told him I did it. I said I looked at his phone because I needed reassurance. I was still carrying fears from my last relationship."
You’ve had your share of crises this year.
Misgav: “That’s true. So we decided to start couples therapy to work through our wounds together."
Giv'oni: “We had a major crisis two months ago. We were stuck in a loop, the more he tried to get closer, the more I kept pulling away. A friend even suggested we break up. Hearing that was a wake-up call.
"It’s easy to walk away, but I realized I didn’t want to lose this relationship. I have someone who is everything I asked for - sensitive, connected to himself, who loves me and shows it. I wasn’t willing to give it up. I did the work to bring us back to a good place."
Do you talk about the future?
Misgav: “The intention is to build a life together, including marriage and children. At the same time, I ask that we respect the natural pace of things. I want to continue deepening the relationship."
Kati, it’s admirable that you live without cynicism, despite what you’ve been through.
“I haven’t lost my love for people or for the world. I’ve held on to my innocence, and that’s what saved me. If my experiences had colored everything, I’d be walking around thinking the world is dangerous and men are terrible. But from the start, I knew it’s both. And I choose to see the good."