The Tamesis
Before Lily Rivkin and Jack Friend fell in love, even before they were born, their lives were intertwined.
The list of coincidences is quite long. One: When Lily was in high school, she stumbled upon a breakfast hosted by her father, Charles Rivkin, who was then the U.S. ambassador to France under former President Barack Obama. As it happened, his breakfast guests that day were Jack’s grandparents, who were connected to Lily’s father through a mutual friend from Chicago.
Jack attended the same high school as Lily’s father and her cousins, and both attended Lily’s cousin’s 2008 bar mitzvah and even appeared in a photo together. In 2015, Lily’s friend happened to live with Jack’s sister. At the time, Lily was going through her first major breakup, and she would go to her friends’ houses to see if she could meet the right person. Looking back, she said, she can’t believe her future husband’s sister was just feet away from her.
Finally: In the 1950s, Lily’s great-grandmother Celia Hammerman purchased a diamond necklace from Jack’s great-grandfather Harry Levinson, a Chicago jeweler. The couple didn’t realize the connection until they had been dating for two years. Of course, Celia and Harry never knew that one day her great-granddaughter would wear that necklace and marry his great-grandson.
Despite 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 misdirections and surprises.
It was their anniversary, and the couple had an annual tradition of celebrating at the Glenmere Tower Hotel in Chester, upstate New York. Their bags were packed and Lily even confirmed a dinner reservation there. But on the morning of the trip, he told her, “We’re not going to Glenmere,” and handed her an itinerary to Franciacorta, Italy. She repacks her bags and they rush to the airport, but as they prepare to check in, he reveals that they’re actually going to Paris. “My goal is to have as many decoys as possible so that when the proposal happens it doesn’t feel obvious,” Jack said.
His plan worked. “At this point, he has me completely confused and I don’t even believe we’re actually flying to Paris,” Lily shared.
They arrive in Paris with ostensibly plans for brunch, but end up at the embassy where Lily grew up. He suggested they go inside. “I told him, ‘Jack, we can’t just walk in there…’ and the door opened.”
She still didn’t realize what was happening until she saw a photographer and it dawned on her: he was proposing. She started crying and she said yes. As they walked into another room to toast with champagne, there was one final surprise: their families were waiting to celebrate with them. “I couldn’t believe they were all there. It was so special,” Lily said. “Jake was very thoughtful in every aspect.”
