Berkus has been vocal about his own experience surviving the tsunami, in which he tragically lost his partner Fernando Bengoechea
More than 20 years after the deadly 2004 Asia tsunami, Nate Berkus is speaking about his experience surviving the tragedy and the lessons he continues to learn from it.
In a recent Instagram Reel, the interior designer, 54, took a moment to revisit the terrible natural disaster that killed his then-partner, photographer Fernando Bengoechea, while the pair were vacationing together in Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka in December 2004.
For his monthly book recommendation series, "Nate's Reads," Berkus spotlighted his January pick: his friend Ani Naqvi and her November 2024 book, in which she documents her own experience surviving the deadly natural disaster that killed more than 230,000 people.
"This beautiful book, Tsunami: The Wave That Saved My Life, and Can Save Yours, is written by a dear friend who survived the tsunami with me. We were together," he says in the Jan. 31 post. "She asked me to write the foreword. Ani did a really beautiful job for anybody curious about the lessons that she learned and put into effect as a life coach. And also, how it changed me."
He continues, "I'm super proud of you Ani. I am honored that you asked me to write the foreword. There's been many things written about the tsunami. Many survivor accounts, but Ani's is 100% accurate."
In the caption, he notes that the book is such a "powerful story of resilience and perspective," adding: "We survived the tsunami together - and years later, Ani has given voice to an experience that changed us forever."
In the foreword of Naqvi's book, Berkus reflects on the devastating moment he lost Bengoechea and how he leaned on strangers at the time, like his now dear friend, for support.
After taking a moment to remember the locals' and foreigners' lives lost that day, he writes of the natural disaster: "It also killed the first love of my life, photographer Fernando Bengoechea, who disappeared into the sea. That day I felt his grip on me loosen for the last and final time in the churning, violent water. He was never seen again, and I barely made it out with my own life."
Berkus notes that "perhaps the most important" thing he experienced in the aftermath of the tsunami was the connections he made, including with Naqvi who he says "saved my life literally and figuratively."
In an exclusive interview published in November 2024, Berkus opened up to PEOPLE about the impact the tsunami had on him, especially in the immediate months after losing Bengoechea.
"I wasn't eating, I wasn't sleeping," he told PEOPLE at the time while reflecting on the tragic event 20 years later. "I wasn't able to maintain a conversation."
"I think it's such a case for admitting when you need help, admitting when, no matter who you are, that we find ourselves as people unable to cope, unable to understand, just unable to find the path again," he added. "Without the grief counselor and the therapist, I don't know that I would've ever returned to any semblance of who I was before."
Never miss a story -- sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Berkus has also been candid about what his now-husband Jeremiah Brent, 41, has taught him after going through such loss.
"The biggest lesson, for me, is that no matter what I've been through -- and I've been very public about what I've survived -- I will believe, because [Jeremiah] taught me to believe, that if you do the work on yourself that's necessary to make yourself available to great love, then it's possible that great love can come around again," he told PEOPLE in 2022.
%3Amax_bytes(150000)%3Astrip_icc()%3Afocal(719x238%3A721x240)%2Fnate-berkus-020426-d5c23f5ee28f4e2484a065e30884e591.jpg&w=3840&q=75)