Falling in love often requires a leap of faith. For Laurie Palermo, the leap of faith took the form of a religious conversion. Palermo, 38, and her partner, Eli Hayempour, 34, are one of four couples featured in the TLC series “Forbidden Love.
” Each grapples with challenges posed by having different religious faiths and upbringings. The couple met while attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, they share in the first episode. After their initial friendship turned romantic, a religious divide loomed large.
Palermo was raised Catholic but is no longer practicing; Hayempour is a practicing Orthodox Jew. Speaking to TODAY.com, Palermo explains she heard about the show from her sister, who sent her the listing.
“I’ve watched reality TV before but I’d never seen anything that dabbled in religion. I thought it was very unique. And I was like, ‘There’s never time that we’re going to do this again, and we can inspire other couples to kind of want to do it as well,’” she says.
The couple agrees it was a “very cool experience,” but it required a bit of nudging on Palermo’s part, at first. “I talked him into doing it. I thought, ‘Maybe we’ll grow closer and you can share our story, and it’ll just be something that people will watch and learn from,” she says.
What came next, Palermo says, was “very hard.” “Forbidden Love” follows Palermo’s efforts to convert to Judaism at Hayempour’s request. On the show, Hayempour explains that a meeting wi.