62-year-old Soso Pavliashvili and Irina Patlakh have been together for more than two decades, but their love story began long before that. Irina is almost 17 years younger than the singer, and they met in the 90s when she was just 16. Patlakh was attending a drama club, while Soso was rehearsing next door with his band "Mironi".

Irina recalls how she once approached Pavliashvili for an autograph: "I saw him and decided to get his autograph. I walked up and said, 'Hello!' He was sitting with his back to me. And then, very, very slowly, he turned around with a serious face—and broke into a smile. And I thought, 'Wow, he's so cool! Not pretentious!' Soso himself admits that he immediately felt something special for the young Irina: she was beautiful, brave, and she liked his songs.

The relationship didn't develop immediately. Irina genuinely fell in love only after two years. At that time, Soso was married and had a son, Levan, although his marriage to Nino was already formal – his wife lived in Georgia, and Pavliashvili was spending more and more time in Moscow. "As a man, of course, I took the initiative first. But as a woman, for her part, Irina was not idle either. It was obvious to me that our interest in each other was mutual," the singer shared.

Irina's parents, who were not even 20 years old yet, were shocked when they found out about her relationship with a famous singer. Her father, Boris, later admitted on a TV show that his first desire was to "throw Soso off the balcony." "The first reaction was shock. We knew he was a big womanizer. I labeled him as an all-union-level womanizer. The reaction was negative; I didn't believe in this alliance. I thought they would break up, and the girl would be traumatized," he said. Irina's father even arranged a meeting with Pavliashvili at a restaurant to force him to break up with his daughter. The atmosphere was tense, and at some point, Soso apologized, left to "step out for a minute," and never returned. Boris was angry but later admitted that the singer had acted wisely by avoiding a big argument.

Irina's parents only came to terms with their union years later. They were troubled by the fact that Pavliashvili did not dissolve his first marriage until 2003. But when Irina became pregnant, Soso officially divorced. The singer himself, incidentally, claimed that he liked his chosen one's parents from the very beginning. He described his meeting with them as follows (omitting the quarrel with her father): "When I met her relatives, I realized that they were very advanced, modern people. And we somehow became friends without much effort. If it weren't for that, Irishka and I wouldn't have stayed together."

In 1996, about a year before their relationship began, Soso was in a terrible accident that led to epileptic seizures, most often occurring in his sleep. "I was afraid to fall asleep. Nothing helped, no medication. It sometimes happened three times a night or once a month. I gained a lot of weight because I couldn't move," the musician recalled. Upon learning of his health problems, Irina realized he needed her. "There was no one around him then. It took effort for the terrible seizures to pass. The next day, he wouldn't remember who he was or what he had done. For me, it was a real school of life," she said. Later, Soso admitted that the birth of his first daughter, Liza, in 2004 cured him of the illness. By then, he and Irina were already performing together: she was the backup singer and dancer in his band. According to Soso, Irina didn't let his talent "get nickel-and-dimed." The birth of their daughter further brought the couple closer.

In 2008, Soso Pavliashvili and Irina Patlakh had their second daughter, Sandra. The media reported that the singer, with his Georgian inclination for a large family, wanted all his loved ones to live nearby. Thus, Irina's parents began living in the same house as Soso's apartment, and later his adult son from his first marriage, Levan. Two decades later, they are still not officially married. Irina says she doesn't want a stamp in her passport herself, not wanting it to burden their relationship. Soso explains the secret to their successful relationship: "I believe that two people in love can get along if they are united by one main goal – to be together. If someone doesn't want to compromise, but wants to prove something – that's the reason for all conflicts. At the beginning of our life together, I had a conversation with Ira: if we want to be together, then we will be together. And if we don't want to, then we shouldn't torment each other. And it's not about the child, not about some kind of responsibility: if you don't want to live with a person, then you shouldn't do it."