Danielle Gelfand
Writer. TV Producer. Carb Loving Half-Belgian.
Hi, I’m Danielle.
I'm a writer currently at work on my memoir, Unlovable. At 32, I was a successful TV producer creating happy endings for millions, but I was profoundly alone—a virgin who'd never been kissed. My father's suicide when I was a teenager left me an only child carrying enormous responsibility. I felt responsible for him in death, and for my Holocaust survivor mother, who couldn't let me go.
My mother and I danced around my father's ghost. Work and my self-deprecating persona became my escape. This book chronicles what happened when, in a lonely hotel room one Thanksgiving while filming a documentary, I admitted something to myself. I had felt unlovable for as long as I could remember. Something had to change.
In that moment, I asked myself: What if I were wrong about who I was and what I deserved? I learned to face the past I'd been avoiding, risk vulnerability, and let people in. This journey led me from isolation to the unexpected late-in-life love and family I didn't think was possible.
For years, I avoided my past by throwing myself into my career. Here is my appearance on Today with Hoda & Jenna, where I shared how I shifted my mindset to create the life I wanted, filled with love and family.
In my New York Times essay, The Wedding I Thought Would Never Happen, I shared my most painful secret with the world. By my thirties, I’d never been on a date, though I produced relationship shows. Tired of finding partners for others, I decided it was my time for big love.
Danielle in the Media
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