With the election of Shimon Peres as president, Sonia Peres announced that she would not move with him to the president's official resident and would stay in their private apartment in Neve Avivim. Ever since they have lived separately, following her husband Breaking his promise that being elected chairman of the Labor Party in 2002 will be his last public job. During this period she changed her name to Sonia Gal, an abbreviation of her maiden name Gelman.