Sania Mirza admits being a single mom after divorce with Shoaib Malik ‘tough’: ‘It’s very hard; I got a panic attack’ | Bollywood News

Farah Khan has often spoken about the financial hardships her family faced after her father, filmmaker Kamran Khan’s movie failed at the box office, plunging them into sudden poverty. In a candid conversation with her friend and former tennis player Sania Mirza on her YouTube show Serving It Up with Sania, Farah opened up about how her father’s financial downfall led him to alcoholism and how those years deeply impacted her childhood.
Farah recalled, “I was 5–6 years old and I was a very spoiled, pampered child till then. But I saw the repercussions over the years. And I don’t blame the industry for it because it happens in every industry. If you are a failure, people won’t come to you. When people say Bollywood is very tough, no, life is only tough.”
Speaking about her father’s alcoholism, she continued, “Success sells. You have to make sure that you don’t get affected failure or success. Later, I understood why my dad took to alcohol. At that time as a child, I would get traumatised, and you cannot bring your friends home.”
Story continues below this ad

Farah shared that her father eventually had to sell their family property to repay debts. “It was uncertain. We had a whole floor and then we started selling flats, and then finally we came to one hall and one bedroom. We came from 5 bedrooms to one hall and a room.”
She added that the only remaining hall in their home was rented out to card players in the afternoons, and the small amount they paid helped the family afford their daily groceries. “Those people would give us Rs 35 every day, and that would help us buy milk and vegetables for the next day. But when they didn’t come to play, we didn’t have money to buy milk for the next day.”

Recalling her father’s struggle with alcohol, Farah said that the smell of liquor still brings back painful childhood memories. “My dad is lovely, but to see him like that, and I can smell alcohol whenever I go somewhere. I know that smell so well, it triggers a childhood memory for me. I used to stay in college till 6:30 pm so that I don’t have to come home.” She added, “We couldn’t call our friends home or even say that my parents are separated in school because it was a big taboo.”
The conversation also turned emotional when Sania Mirza opened up about her own challenges as a single mother following her divorce from former Pakani cricketer Shoaib Malik. Praising Sania’s resilience, Farah said, “You are now a single mother. Nothing is more difficult than being a single mother. It is very very hard. We all have our journeys, and we have to choose what is best.”Story continues below this ad
Sania admitted that balancing motherhood, work, and studies has been overwhelming. Recalling one particularly difficult day, she said, “I don’t want to mention it on camera, but there was a moment that was one of the lowest moments when you showed up on my set and I had to go on a live show after that. If you had not come there… I was shivering. And if you would not have come there I wouldn’t have done that show, you told me, ‘No matter what, you are doing this show.’”
Remembering that moment, Farah added, “I got so scared. I never have seen you get a panic attack. I had to shoot that day, but I just left it and came there in my pyjamas and chappal.”