English director Guy Ritchie reveals his Hebrew prowess during an ‘Aladdin’ interview.
Guy Ritchie has a long list of reasons he is known worldwide. He is an English film director, film producer, screenwriter, and businessman. He is also Madonna’s ex-husband. Lesser known is that Ritchie speaks Hebrew!
During an interview last week with Ynet about his live-action remake of the animated film “Aladdin,” Ritchie revealed his Hebrew prowess. Ritchie shared that he speaks Hebrew with his present wife, Jacqui Ainsley, and has been learning the language for about 15 years.
In 2011, Ainsley was interviewed for Hello! Magazine. At the time, she said that she was studying Hebrew every day.
“Initially it was difficult as the characters are so vastly dissimilar to English characters and there are two alphabets to contend with,” she said. “I believe you can learn anything you want if you are determined — one hour a day can go a long way.”
The couple have three children together, all with biblical Hebrew names; a son Rafael, which is the name of an angel, a daughter Rivka, who was one of the matriarchs, and a son Levi, who was one of the 12 tribes.
“My wife also speaks Hebrew, so sometimes in front of our children we speak Hebrew,” explained Ritchie. “It’s a hard language, but a secret language as well so they don’t understand anything.”
Ritchie, whose teacher lives in Haifa, said that he would like his children to learn Hebrew.
Ritchie, who is not Jewish, and Madonna were married for nearly eight years and share an adopted son Rocco. Not only is Madonna a famous singer, she is also quite public about her beliefs in Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah) and had God’s biblical Hebrew name tattooed on her back.
It seems that Madonna was an inspiration for Ritchie’s connection to Judaism, even having their son celebrate a bar mitzvah ceremony at the Kabbalah Center in New York in 2013.
It is noteworthy that Ritchie is dyslexic. Yet, he still managed to master the Hebrew language. In fact, Ritchie previously demonstrated his Hebrew skills in 2017 while promoting the film “King Arthur-Legend of the Sword.”
