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Dominique Isabel Pascale Crenn receives countless DMs on Instagram from people trying to get a table at her San Francisco restaurant, Atelier Crenn. She doesn\u2019t usually respond.<\/p>\n
But when Maria Elaina Bello sent her a DM in April 2018, the message resonated with her.<\/p>\n
Lorraine Silvera, a friend of Ms. Bello\u2019s and a fellow food lover, had seen Ms. Crenn<\/a> on the Netflix documentary series \u201cChef\u2019s Table.\u201d Ms. Silvera and Ms. Bello were flying to San Francisco from Los Angeles for dinner at Atelier Crenn, but reservations were fully booked.<\/p>\n Ms. Bello, 57, sent a message to Ms. Crenn, 59, on Instagram: \u201cMy friend Lolo who started the first Italian restaurant in Cap-Ha\u00eftien, Haiti, is coming to visit next week and wants nothing more than to eat your divine food. We will fly from L.A. Thursday if it\u2019s possible to get into the restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n As it happened, Ms. Crenn had been to Haiti the year before with her friend Michelle Jean, who is Haitian, to help farmers who had been affected by Hurricane Matthew, which devastated the country<\/a> in October 2016. Their efforts to rebuild infrastructure included planting trees for coffee and cacao farmers. Ms. Crenn felt compelled to respond to Ms. Bello, and she made space at the restaurant for her and her friend.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt was the most amazing food I ever had,\u201d Ms. Bello said. \u201cShe was so kind, we knew that night we\u2019d be friends forever. But I wasn\u2019t in a dating place. She wasn\u2019t in a dating place.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Crenn said she immediately felt safe around Ms. Bello, and that Ms. Bello gave her a hug that made her feel at peace. \u201cEspecially in my industry sometimes, so many people come to the restaurant and everybody wants to be your friend,\u201d Ms. Crenn said.<\/p>\n Ms. Crenn, who was born in Versailles, France, is a celebrated chef and the first woman in the United States to receive three stars<\/a> from the Michelin Guide, its highest rating, for Atelier Crenn.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ms. Bello is not unfamiliar with celebrity culture. She is an actress who most recently appeared on the Netflix series \u201cBeef,\u201d for which she received an Emmy nomination for best supporting actress in a limited series. Ms. Bello won the 2024 Critics Choice Award<\/a> for the role.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n After they met, for two nights in a row, Ms. Bello was featured in Ms. Crenn\u2019s dreams as her \u201cprotector\u201d from people who were trying to take advantage of her. \u201cI was like, \u2018Whoa, what\u2019s happening?\u2019\u201d Ms. Crenn said.<\/p>\n They kept in touch and messaged here and there. In October 2018, six months after their first visit, Ms. Bello returned to the restaurant with the same friend, Ms. Silvera. On a whim, they joined Ms. Crenn to travel to a food and wine festival in Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico, the next day.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just a spur of the moment adventure, and it was really fun,\u201d Ms. Bello said. During the trip, they cooked, picked flowers, set tables and ate together.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really admired each other,\u201d Ms. Crenn said. They realized that their friendship could be something more in March 2019, when Ms. Crenn visited Los Angeles for a photo shoot. They both agreed they had feelings for each other, but that they would take the time to figure out what a relationship \u201cwould look like,\u201d Ms. Bello said.<\/p>\n Ms. Crenn traveled to New York shortly afterward to celebrate her birthday on April 7. The day before, when she stepped out of the shower, she found a lump on her breast.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAt that moment, I was just like, \u2018It\u2019s not going to be good,\u2019\u201d Ms. Crenn said. \u201cI felt it.\u201d<\/p>\n After her birthday, she visited her doctor, who, upon performing a biopsy, told her she had the \u201cc word,\u201d Ms. Crenn said \u2014 that it was triple-negative breast cancer at stage 2, almost at stage 3.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n She and Ms. Bello met in San Francisco, and she told her about the cancer. \u201cFalling in love with someone \u2014 you don\u2019t want to put that on them,\u201d Ms. Crenn said.<\/p>\n But Ms. Bello\u2019s response was: \u201cLet\u2019s do cancer.\u201d It was her way of making the relationship official.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was sort of that simple,\u201d Ms. Bello said. \u201cMy mother had cancer since I was a kid. I had a job where I could travel and I felt like I\u2019m a caretaker in a lot of ways. And I just felt like this was too special to walk away from.\u201d<\/p>\n Binge more Vows columns here<\/em><\/a><\/strong> and <\/em><\/strong>read all our wedding, relationship and divorce coverage here<\/em><\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Ms. Bello flew back and forth between San Francisco and Los Angeles, where she was filming at the time for a main role on the TV drama \u201cNCIS,\u201d to take care of Ms. Crenn.<\/p>\n \u201cThis woman danced through cancer,\u201d Ms. Bello said. \u201cIt\u2019s like she hears music in her brain all of the time and can\u2019t help moving with joy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI think I cried more through it than she did,\u201d Ms. Bello added. \u201cAnd that was for about nine months \u2014 nine really painful months.\u201d Those nine months involved 16 sessions of chemotherapy, eight blood transfusions and a double mastectomy.<\/p>\n \u201cI always say our honeymoon phase was cancer,\u201d Ms. Bello said. \u201cI feel like I kept her up in so many ways. Falling in love is a really exciting thing, and it\u2019s good for your body and your soul.\u201d<\/p>\n At the end of Ms. Crenn\u2019s last treatment, she was feeling particularly ill. She called Ms. Bello, who flew to San Francisco the next morning.<\/p>\n \u201cSomehow I woke up and I thought that was the end for me because I saw death,\u201d Ms. Crenn said. \u201cIt was very weird. I kind of passed out, and she walked in.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Bello took her to the hospital and slept next to her that night in a bed by the window. They were still able to joke and laugh, despite the difficulty of the situation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was all about positivity and love,\u201d Ms. Crenn said.<\/p>\n In December 2019, Ms. Bello purchased a home in Los Angeles. The two also rent an apartment together in \u00cele Saint-Louis, Paris. Ms. Crenn, who has two other restaurants and bars in San Francisco \u2014 Bar Crenn and Petit Crenn \u2014 has a home in Sausalito, just north of the city. The couple live between those three homes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ms. Bello grew up in Norristown, Pa., and graduated from Villanova University with a bachelor\u2019s degree in political science. She has one son, Jackson, who is 23, from a previous relationship.<\/p>\n Ms. Crenn graduated from Cours Charlemagne in Paris with a bachelor\u2019s degree in economics. She has 10-year-old twin daughters, Charlotte and Olivia.<\/p>\n In December 2019, the couple went to Pavillon Ledoyen, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant by Yannick All\u00e9no in Paris. Mr. All\u00e9no, a friend of Ms. Crenn\u2019s, arranged a private room for the couple. They had dinner, and Ms. Crenn proposed. Then Ms. Bello proposed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was magical,\u201d Ms. Bello said. \u201cWe danced in this little room, and then we spent that week just walking around Paris. It was cold and snowy a little bit. It was just a romantic time.\u201d<\/p>\n That February, they went out together as a couple for the first time at the annual Vanity Fair Oscars Party. \u201cWe said, let\u2019s go out and be social and be seen,\u201d Ms. Bello said.<\/p>\n And then the pandemic struck, but they kept moving forward. They had a group of friends they spent time with in Los Angeles. They cooked a lot, drove back and forth from San Francisco to Los Angeles and made videos singing to songs by Whitney Houston, Ms. Crenn\u2019s favorite artist.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The couple were legally wed in the backyard of their Los Angeles home on April 7. Seano McFarland, a close friend who was previously ordained by the Universal Life Church, officiated. The women\u2019s three children were the only guests present.<\/p>\n On May 12 \u2014 Mother\u2019s Day \u2014 they had their wedding celebration in front of 140 guests at Montage Los Cabos in Baja California, Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Their children played an integral role in the celebration. Ms. Bello\u2019s son walked her down the aisle to \u201cTime Flies\u201d by Burna Boy, her favorite artist. Ms. Crenn\u2019s daughters and Peggy Keon, the mother of her former wife, walked down the aisle with her to the song \u201cKiss\u201d by Prince. (\u201cThey said yes to Maria,\u201d Ms. Crenn said. \u201cThey said, \u2018Yeah, you can marry her.\u2019 They\u2019re obsessed with her.\u201d)<\/p>\n During the celebration, the couple sat onstage with Mr. McFarland, who conducted an interview with them so the guests could learn their love story. The ceremony revolved around what they call \u201cthe 3 C\u2019s\u201d: their journey through cancer, Covid, and, now, commitment.<\/p>\n After the ceremony, the couple left the stage dancing to the song \u201cI Wanna Dance with Somebody\u201d by Whitney Houston with the crowd cheering.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cListen, I\u2019ve been in so many relationships in my life with men and women \u2014 very passionate affairs,\u201d Ms. Bello said. \u201cI just never thought I\u2019d get married. When I met Dom and started to fall in love with her, I realized that it was so much deeper and I was definitely in a place in my life being in the second half of life, being older. It was a very mature love in a lot of ways, but we also played a lot together.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow cool is that? To know that until the end,\u201d Ms. Crenn added, \u201cI can hold somebody else\u2019s hand and they can smile at me, and they got me.\u201d<\/p>\n When<\/strong> May 12, 2024<\/p>\n Where <\/strong>Montage Los Cabos, Mexico<\/p>\n A Culinary Experience <\/strong>The wedding fittingly treated guests to a top-notch food experience. Guests were greeted with a seafood bar serving tuna tostadas and oysters, along with passed hors d\u2019oeuvres. After the ceremony, they indulged in a family-style dinner with a menu curated by the chef Xavier Salomon.<\/p>\n Dior and Denim<\/strong> The couple were dressed by Dior for their ceremony looks: Ms. Bello in a fuchsia blouse and skirt and Ms. Crenn in a custom white vest and pants. During the dinner, they changed into jeans \u2014 partway through dancing, and after enough tequila, Ms. Crenn said, jokingly.<\/p>\n A Tribute to the Mothers<\/strong> Ms. Bello\u2019s son delivered an emotional speech about the significance of the wedding taking place on Mother\u2019s Day. He paid homage to his grandmother, Kathleen Bello, who was in attendance. He shouted out his stepmother, Jill Cooper, who is married to his father and Ms. Bello\u2019s former partner, Dan McDermott, who was also in attendance, and ended the speech pronouncing his new, fourth mother, Ms. Crenn. He celebrated his \u201cmodern family\u201d \u2014 a reference to Ms. Bello\u2019s Modern Love piece in 2013 titled \u201cComing Out as a Modern Family<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nOn This Day<\/span><\/h3>\n