Years before Lily Rivkin and Jack Friend fell in love—and even before they were born—their lives were intertwined.
The list of coincidences is fairly long. For one: When Lily was in high school, she once stumbled into a breakfast hosted by her father, Charles Rivkin, who was then serving as the US Ambassador to France under former president Barack Obama. As it happens, his breakfast guests that day were Jack’s grandparents, who had been connected to Lily’s father through a mutual friend from Chicago.
Jack went to the same high school as Lily’s father and her cousins, and the two both attended Lily’s cousin’s bat mitzvah in 2008, even appearing in group photos together. In 2015, Lily’s friend happened to live with Jack’s sister. At the time, Lily was going through her first big breakup and would hang out at her friend’s place, wondering if she’d ever meet the right person. Looking back, she says, she can’t believe that the sister of her future husband was just a few feet away.
Lastly: In the 1950s, Lily’s great-grandmother Celia Hammerman bought a diamond necklace from Jack’s great-grandfather Harry Levinson who was a jeweler in Chicago. The couple only realized this connection two years into their relationship. Of course, Celia and Harry could never have known that one day, her great-granddaughter would marry his great-grandson, wearing that very same necklace.
Despite the many overlapping threads, Lily and Jack didn’t actually meet until November 2021, when they were both living in New York City, and matched on the dating app Lox Club. In November 2024, three years into their relationship, Jack proposed—after a series of misdirects and surprises.
It was their anniversary, and the couple had a yearly tradition of going upstate to celebrate at the Glenmere Mansion hotel in Chester, New York. Their bags were packed, and Lily had even confirmed a dinner reservation there. But on the morning of the trip, he told her, “We’re not going to the Glenmere,” and handed her an itinerary for Franciacorta, Italy. She repacked her bag and they rushed to the airport, but as they were about to check in, he revealed that they were actually going to Paris. “My goal was to have as many decoys as possible so that when the proposal happened it wouldn’t feel obvious,” Jack says.
His plan worked. “At this point, he had me so thoroughly confused that I wasn’t even convinced we were actually flying to Paris,” Lily shares.
They arrived in Paris, and what was ostensibly a brunch plan ended up taking them by the embassy, where Lily grew up. He suggested they go inside. “I told him, ‘Jack, we can’t just walk in…’ and then the doors opened.”
She still didn’t realize what was happening until she saw a photographer, and it clicked: He was proposing. She started crying, and she said yes. When they walked into another room for a Champagne toast, there was one last surprise: Their families were waiting to celebrate with them. “I couldn’t believe they were all there. It was so special,” Lily says. “Jack was so incredibly thoughtful in every aspect.”