Sonya Peres | Israeli leader's wife, 88

Sonya Peres, 88, the fiercely private, estranged wife of Israeli President Shimon Peres, died Thursday in Tel Aviv.

Her son-in-law and physician, Raphael Walden, told Israel Radio she died peacefully in her sleep.

Born Sonya Gelman in Ukraine, she emigrated to Israel as a child. She met Peres in high school and they married in 1945. Before her marriage, she served as a British army nurse in Cairo, Egypt.

The couple had three children, eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. In her later years, Mrs. Peres quietly volunteered for numerous organizations in Israel.

Throughout her husband's decades-long career, she determinedly stayed out of the public eye. When Peres became president in 2007 and moved to Jerusalem, she remained at their apartment in Tel Aviv. Peres' office said that he heard the news of her passing in Jerusalem after a meeting with the French foreign minister and rushed to their Tel Aviv home. - AP