Shabana Azmi opens up on falling in love with Javed Akhtar while he was married, reveals it was a ‘very, very, very tough period’ – Times of India

Actor Shabana Azmi and lyricist-writer Javed Akhtar got married in 1984 and have been together for almost four decades. However, it hasn’t been the most smooth sailing for the duo, since Javed Akhtar was married to actor Honey Irani when the duo first fell in love. Not only that, he also had two kids, namely Farhan and Zoya Akhtar from his marriage.

In a recent interaction with Curly Tales, Shabana Azmi opened up on that time and said that it was extremely difficult. She added, “Oh it was a very, very, very tough period. I don’t think anybody knows what all the three people involved suffer. They think, ‘that’s it, kar liya.’ It is very difficult, very painful, particularly when there are children involved in it. You go through a very, very difficult period.”

She also added that owing to the constant judgements, she and Javed saab even tried to breakup multiple times. She added, “We did try to break several times, in fact three times we tried to break because of the children but it just didn’t happen. Today, what is good is that I am very good friends with all of them, Honey is like a family member of ours and with the children we have this beautiful relationship. So, in the end, it has worked out well, for which I am very grateful.”

The couple believe that friendship is the foundation of their relationship. After the wedding, the two decided not to have any kids of their own, and Shabana treats Farhan and Zoya as her own.