Shabana Azmi says people ‘flung mud’ at her for marrying Javed Akhtar: ‘I stamped over Honey Irani’s rights for my own happiness’ | Bollywood News

Javed Akhtar, who was married to Honey Irani for about 13 years, divorced her in 1985 and went on to marry Shabana Azmi. However, Shabana’s fans were quite disappointed in her and in a recent interview, Shabana said that her fans in right in feeling so. Her fans felt that she was “stamping over” Honey Irani’s rights marrying the veteran lyric. Back then, Shabana, Javed and Honey stayed silent on the subject but the people “flung mud” at Shabana.
In a recent conversation with Filmfare, Shabana shared people’s disappointment in her was fair. She explained, “It was fair because I was this femin model and I had done something that was inexplicable. It was like everything I had said, I was stamping over another woman’s rights for my own happiness. I think people who followed me as a femin had every right to feel that.”
While her followers were extremely upset with her, Shabana decided staying quiet on this would be a wiser decision than trying to give an explanation. She shared, “What I figured is that if I started explaining the circumstances in which it had been done (the wedding), it would lead to much more hurt of the people and the families involved. I learnt that it was better to keep quiet. And I think that was very sagacious decision because after all the mud that was flung at me, it eventually died down.”
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Shabana said that since the three of them stayed respectful towards each other, it helped their relationship and now, all of them get along as a family. “Today, I have such a healthy relationship with Honey that people just won’t believe it. It was because no mud was flung. And I think the credit goes to Honey, to me and Javed.”
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She said they were all on the same page when it came to not wanting to address their personal life in front of the press. “Because you are in big hurry to explain to people that what they are assuming is not right. All three of us refrained from that and I think that was very wise because people can’t really understand this situation.” Shabana said that this was a “painful” process since kids were involved. Javed and Honey are parents to Zoya Akhtar and Farhan Akhtar. “When it involves three people, it is so full of pain and especially when there are children then it is doubly so. This can’t be explained or understood. And people are just eager to throw mud. However, in this case, people’s disappointment was justified,” she said.
Honey and Javed’s divorce had a psychological impact on Farhan Akhtar, who once said he went in a shell after the incident. Previously, talking about his failed marriage with Honey, Javed shared in the series Angry Young Man, “Honey is one person in the world towards whom I feel guilty. And she’s the only person. About 60 to 70 person responsibility lies on my shoulder for the failure of that marriage. If I had as much understanding as I have today, perhaps, things would not have gone wrong. It’s very difficult to accept. But that’s how it is.”Story continues below this ad
Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar have been married for forty years.