The couple married in September 2003, before Zelensky’s political career began. He is known to have forgotten to remind his wife of his decision to run for president.
Zelenska found out about her husband’s candidacy on social networks, she told Vogue Ukraine. – Why did not you tell me? She asked him. His answer: “I forgot.”
Zelenska was “not very happy in the beginning when I found out that these were the plans,” she told the magazine. “I understood how everything will change and what difficulties we will have to face,” she said in an interview in 2019, years before her husband became a leader during the war and the face of Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion.
However, Zelenska has adapted to the role of first lady, supporting causes including the Paralympics, child nutrition and the fight against domestic violence.
Zelenska, 44, grew up in the central Ukrainian city of Krivoy Rog, where Zelenski also grew up. The two met in college, where she studied architecture and he studied law, but the couple found a career in comedy. Zelenski, also 44, started a production company, Studio Kvartal 95, where Zelenska became a screenwriter.
For security reasons, the whereabouts of Zelenska and her children have not been made public, although Zelenski said they remain in Ukraine.
In the days after the Russian invasion, Zelenskaya went on social media to express her encouragement to the Ukrainian people. “I will not panic or shed tears today. I will be calm and confident, “she wrote on Instagram last week. “My children are watching me. I will be by their side. And to my husband. And with you.”