The cause of his amusement was my plea that he finally publicly apologize to his wife, First Lady Olena Zelenska, for not telling her he was going to run for president. Instead, incredibly, he discovered it by watching the then-comedian announce it live on a New Year’s Eve variety show he hosted in 2018. “He forgot,” he diplomatically explained, in what turned out to be a spectacularly momentous, life-changing decision of historic proportions. “DID YOU FORGET TO TELL YOUR WIFE YOU WANT TO BE PRESIDENT!?” I exclaimed in disbelief, as Zelensky smiled creepily. “What were you thinking?” “This has been a very difficult decision for our family,” he said. “I knew he was going to hit them, that it was going to be a tough call, no joke. These are serious matters. My family was not ready to let me go…” “He understood that I probably wouldn’t like that idea,” Zelenska interrupted, “and that it would require very difficult negotiations with me. So probably every day she thought, THIS is the day, THIS is the time, I should tell her. But he kept putting it off. And then he was on TV, I saw his New Year’s speech and I found out he was actually running!” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and First Lady Olena Zelenska sat down with Piers Morgan for their first international TV interview together. It was time to atone for his marital failure. “Mr. President, this is your chance to apologize to your wife…,” I suggested. So he did. “Alright I’m sorry!” he said directly to Zelenska and they both laughed out loud. It was a very rare moment of lightheartedness for a couple who have been widely praised for keeping the morale of the devastated people of Ukraine alive in their darkest hour. They were sitting across from me in a grand old government building, for their first international television interview together. And they couldn’t hide their excitement at seeing each other after an extended period where a few fleeting moments were all they had, holding hands like the teenage high school sweethearts they were when they first met 26 years ago. The Zelenskys joked with Morgan that their interview was a “television date” for the couple amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Is it like dating on TV?” I was kidding Zelenska. “Yes!” she answered. “Thank you for this TV appointment! Volodymyr lives at his workplace. I’m with the kids, but we’re in another place. But all the Ukrainian people are in this situation – too many are separated, and we’re all waiting and waiting for normal life – to be reunited again and just live normal lives like ordinary people live.” Zelensky agreed: “This interview is one of the good opportunities to see each other. This is very important to us. As you know, we are all human and we need to be strong. Sometimes we want to have someone close to us by our side and you miss that in these moments. Yes, I miss my children, I miss my wife. It is impossible to get used to it. Everything else you can get used to.” “We’ve started to care more about each other. That’s why I hope this challenge will make us more united.” Olena Zelenska A crisis of this magnitude, with all the myriad pressures it brings, could sever any relationship, but not the Zelenskys’. “I agree with the theory that marriage gets stronger with challenges,” Zelenska said. “I think it will be the same in our case. We have become more interested in each other. That’s why I hope this challenge will make us more united.” Then she turned to her husband and asked, “What do you think of that?” “My answer would not be different,” replied Zelensky. Zelenska shook her head. “You must have your own opinion on that!” Zelenska said their marriage has become stronger because of the crisis in their country. He smiled. “When you speak, your opinion takes precedence. What I would say is that I have no other experience. I have only one wife and I am happy. I have a wife, a love and a family. I never felt there was anything wrong with us in our relationship or our relationship. Or do you feel unhappy with me sometimes?’ “Not with you,” she replied, “but without you I am very unhappy.” “That’s why I can’t see any big changes,” he said. “War makes our relationship stronger, that’s for sure.” “Are we making it?” Zelenska suggested. “Yes, but management is not the right word. We are in love with each other. OKAY?” “Okay,” he smiled. Zelenska is a radiantly beautiful woman, which prompted me to ask her husband if he felt she was “punching above your weight?” Zelensky looked puzzled until an aide clarified the meaning of the English phrase and replied: “I think I’m very lucky with my wife and my family and my children.” He then confirmed a story I had heard that he and two of his friends proposed to their girlfriends, including Olena, at the same time, and got married three weekends in a row. “True!” he smiled. Zelenska laughed as she recalled the unusual mass marriage arrangement. “I remember three of you (guys) saying, ‘Let’s do it’ and everything will be fine — and we agreed.” I had come to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, five days earlier at Zelenska’s invitation to co-host the Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen, which included moving speeches of solidarity from many of the world’s most powerful and famous people, from America. First Lady Jill Biden to David Beckham and Richard Gere. It’s not a trip that many are making right now. In fact, millions of terrified Ukrainians have been fleeing their country to escape Vladimir Putin’s missiles and murderous thugs since the illegal Russian invasion five months ago. Nor is it an easy journey. My journey involved a three-hour flight from London to a city in Poland, then a 90-minute drive to a train station near the Polish border, where I caught the special overnight presidential train that all world leaders like Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron. forced to use since civilian air transport was banned in the country, arriving in Kyiv 11 hours later. Zelensky said he still wants President Biden to visit Ukraine. It’s easy to be lulled into a false sense of security. I felt pretty relaxed on the train until a flight attendant suddenly appeared urgently pulling down the blackout blinds on my cabin window. “We don’t want the Russians to see any light,” he said matter-of-factly. She had good reason to be afraid: Many trains were attacked in this war and dozens of her colleagues on the rail network were killed. The center of Kiev felt relatively normal with shops and cafes open and locals roaming the streets, albeit amid a significant military presence, but then I heard the air raid sirens going off several times a day and it was an unsettling reality check. Ukraine remains a war zone and no one is safe from Russian long-range cruise missiles. Before interviewing the Zelenskis, I spent some time with other people with deep connections to this war, including the Klitschko brothers, both former world heavyweight boxing champions, now fighting for the very existence of their country, Wladimir in the forefront and Vitali as mayor of Kyiv. The stories were horrific and shocking and represent only a small fraction of the misery that so many Ukrainians have endured. But their resolve is strong, their resilience extraordinary, and in their leader, Zelensky, they have a modern-day Winston Churchill rallying them to defy modern-day Nazis. The comparison is apt as both men were powerfully pint-sized, about 5ft 7, and possessed fierce intelligence and shrewd wit, dogged determination, a resolute refusal to give up and the ability to inspire entire nations with supremely eloquent rhetoric. As I walked with Zelensky outside before the interview began, I told him why I thought he was a Churchillian. “I think the scariest thing about it is that he’s actually sane and understands what he’s doing.” Volodymyr Zelensky on his opinion of Putin “My grandmother was 19 when the Second World War started,” I said, “and she often talked about how the family would sit by the radio, listening to Winston’s speeches, and he really inspired them to believe that they would beat Hitler against everyone. Chances. You did the same for Ukrainians through television and social media.” “Thank you,” he said, “but I will not compare myself to Churchill.” Zelensky is the No. 1 target for Russians and his family No. 2, and there have been regular plots against his precious life as a ruthless Putin tries to silence the man who leads the resistance against him. “It’s an unpleasant feeling,” Zelenska admitted. “I don’t want to think they want to do this to our family. I try to push those kinds of thoughts away. You can see what they did to citizens and what they are doing now, in any part of our country. I don’t understand what they have in mind, and we may be in danger. I don’t want to allow those kinds of thoughts to get deep into my mind because I could feel fear and that’s not what we need right now.” But the fear is real. Just seeing the Zelenskys involves multiple layers of security, including multiple sandbag checkpoints, metal detectors, sniffer dogs, dozens of heavily armed soldiers patrolling everywhere, snipers on rooftops and his own elite personal protection team, who spent an hour with me. ..
