The legendary Dilip Kumar was once known as the most eligible bachelor in Bollywood, and he held on to that position for quite some time. When he finally got married at the age of 44, it was a with the considerably younger Saira Banu, who was just 22 at the time. But, after 16 years of being together, the two found themselves in a crisis when Dilip secretly married a woman named Asma Rehman. Dilip regretted his decision, and could never forgive himself for the hurt he had caused his wife. Saira learnt about her husband’s second marriage via the newspapers, and while she did not believe it at first, the truth eventually came out and completely shattered her.

In his memoir The Substance And The Shadow: An Autobiography, Dilip Kumar recalled this episode of his life and said that he first met Asma in Hyderabad, at a cricket match. What started as an innocent interaction between a star and his fan gradually turned into something else. The actor later found out that there were ulterior motives at play. Dilip met Asma through his sisters, and was told that she was married with three children. He felt that Asma and her husband were showing up almost everywhere that he went, as if they knew his itinerary. “I was completely unaware of a connivance that was being mischievously perpetuated and a situation being cleverly created by vested interests to draw a commitment from me,” he wrote.

He married Asma in 1982, and the news came as a huge shock to Saira, as she trusted him implicitly. This was a defining moment for their relationship, and Dilip admitted that he had caused Saira tremendous pain. “I can never forget or forgive myself for the hurt I caused to Saira and the shattering of the unshakeable faith she had in me,” he wrote.

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Dilip eventually “admitted” his “grave mistake” to Saira, and asked for some time so he could officially divorce Asma. “Saira stood by me when I admitted the grave mistake and asked her to give me some time to undo the wrong through proper legal processes and restore the sanctity of our marriage of sixteen years. I requested Saira to give me some time to sort it all out,” he wrote. Even before the divorce proceedings were completed, Dilip signed a “letter of commitment” to Saira in trying to restore the promise he had once made to Saira’s parents, that there would never be any talk about a second marriage.

After this chapter was over, Dilip believed that he was a “victim of a situation that was set to precipitate a deep crisis in my marriage with Saira.” He felt that there was a “divine purpose” behind this situation and expressed that this episode “strengthened our closeness and our emotional dependence on each other.” Dilip and Saira stayed married until his death in 2021.

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