Three years after being released from prison, where he ran nine months in prison for tax evasion, singer Kobi Peretz, 45, is experiencing new beginnings in his life.
At the end of the month he is expected to become a father to a daughter for the first time, after three sons, and reveals in an interview to be published this Friday in the "Shishvat" supplement, that the name his daughter will receive, which he will reveal only after birth, is "a sacred and special name for me." "My wife Inbal chose him."
Peretz, who discovers that he is wearing a tassel and is careful to keep the Sabbath, talks in an interview about his relationship with his wife, who knew ups and downs, and apologizes for his disparaging attitude toward her over the years.
"I thought mine allowed everything and she's forbidden," he admits.
Starting this week, the singer stars in the documentary series "Daddy's Life" on Network 13, which shows the upheaval that took place in his life - a debauched bachelor to a devoted family man involved in his children's lives, including transferring them to a state-religious school without his wife's consent.
"We almost had a divorce again because of it," he says in an interview.
"My wife was afraid of a state-religious school. She objected and there were dramas here. Nights that did not sleep together. A month after I registered them - she came and admitted that I was right."
About his days in prison, he says: "Prison saved my family. Thanks to him, I am not divorced today. In prison I learned to appreciate my wife and everything I have."
What did she forgive you for?
"For what not? Only the generation of yesteryear could forgive what she forgave me."
infidelity?
"Not necessarily betrayals, vulnerabilities. I would go back and forth whenever I wanted. For nine months we were separated and about to get divorced. Only when we got to the rabbinate did I apologize to her. I hugged her and cried. Since then I have learned to give, to give more. I understood that woman is a source of blessing."
The full interview - this coming Friday in the "Shishvat" supplement.
