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“Why didn’t you tell me?” : how Olena Zelenska learned regarding her husband’s candidacy for the presidency of Ukraine
In January 2019, the current President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, was running for president. A candidacy that his wife, Olena Zelenska, learned only very late.
Today Committed First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska was at the time of the announcement of the candidacy of her husband far from the political sphere. On January 19, 2019, the current President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has announced that he will stand for election once morest the outgoing president, Petro Poroshenko. An announcement that the wife of the former hero of the series servant of the people was far from anticipated. Asked by the Vogue Ukraine in December 2019, and relayed by Vanity Fairthe former screenwriter even mentioned her surprise: “When I asked him: ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’, he replied: ‘I forgot’she reminded herself. My husband knows how to surprise. But if we had discussed this matter beforehand, I would obviously have supported it.”
Far from the flashes of photographers, Olena Zelenska was at that time a television producer. A career now set aside to support her husband and help her country through this period of war. “I am not a public personshe explained before the election, always to our colleagues. But my new responsibilities require it, and I try to play by the rules. But I prefer to stay behind the scenes. My husband is always in the foreground, while I feel more comfortable in the shade.” In December 2019, the current First Lady was defined as:I’m not outgoing, I don’t like to tell jokes. It’s not in my character. But I found reasons to do it to draw people’s attention to important social issues.”
⋙ PHOTOS – Olena Zelenska: back in pictures on the journey of a fallen First Lady
Olena Zelenska, a true figure of the resistance
A figure formerly in the background, Olena Zelenska is today a true image of resistance, in particular in order to meet the needs of Ukrainian children hospitalized during the current crisis. On Tuesday March 8, when the war in Ukraine had been raging for more than ten days, Russia’s number two enemy posted poignant photos on his Instagram account. Infants on makeshift camps, seats transformed into care beds, patients on the floor… “It’s impossible to remain calm as young patients at the Okhmatdyt National Children’s Hospital, which handles the country’s most complicated cases, are now being treated in bomb shelters”, had then written Ukrainian President’s wife.
Article written in collaboration with 6Médias
