Hazem El Masri has reunited with his first wife Arwa and the pair are again a married couple.
El Masri and Arwa have known each other for 20 years and had been married for 14 of them before they separated in 2014. El Masri then married Douah El-Cherif in a short union during which the Canterbury legend was charged with assault.
![Reconciled: Hazem El Masri and Arwa.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170527064337im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/e/3/9/b/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwe2s9.png/1495813405245.jpg)
Arwa's support of El Masri throughout the ordeal never wavered, launching a passionate defence of his character and slamming the NRL's decision not to retain him as an ambassador until a verdict had been reached. The charges against El Masri were dropped in March last year.
The Bulldogs reinstated El Masri as a club ambassador, allowing him to resume his work in delivering messages to the community about social inclusion. The NRL announced a line-up of 46 ambassadors at the start of the season, but El Masri hasn't rejoined their ranks.
The reunion of El Masri and Arwa is a heart-warming yarn that could have been sold for a motza to TV networks or women's magazines. Instead, they chose to tell their story to The Project, free of charge, because of the sensitive way the program handled a previous interview with El Masri.
In the interview, which airs on Network Ten on Tuesday night, El Masri was asked about the NRL's decision not to reinstate him as an ambassador. We hear the response makes for interesting viewing.
Arwa certainly didn't hold back on the issue when she penned an open letter for Fairfax Media blasting then-CEO Dave Smith and his administration for not allowing El Masri a presumption of innocence.
"This is to clear the air about loyalty," Arwa wrote last year.
"The knee-jerk reaction last year by departed NRL CEO David Smith was nothing short of shameful, but personally I wasn't shocked," Arwa wrote.
"The NRL isn't renowned for its loyalty to its players, it's more loyal to the bottom line, and it will sell you the family image without flinching … but when this long-serving soldier for the greater cause of the community needed that faith returned to him, he was shut down and dismissed without being proven guilty. If you want to know what loyalty looks like, you will not find it at the NRL, the only organisation I know of that continuously fails at looking after its own."