In a recent interview, Javed Akhtar talked openly about his marriage to his first wife, Honey Irani, and his battle with alcoholism. They were married for 11 years before separating in 1985. Akhtar shared how his alcohol addiction affected their relationship. He also opened up about how Shabana Azmi had to cope with his alcoholism after his marriage with the veteran actress.
During an interview with the Mojo Story, Javed Akhtar shared, “Somehow she managed it for the first ten years of marriage. She managed a person who was drinking like this. One day I just left it because I realised that if I keep on drinking the way I am, I will die in my early 50s.”
Meanwhile, speaking about his first wife Honey Irani, Javed Akhtar recalled, “I am living in uniform civil code. I was married to a lady, after 11 years of marriage we got divorced. According to Muslim personal law, I was only responsible to give her alimony for four months but I didn’t think that. She was my responsibility. It is also her choice whether she wants my support or not, but whenever she wanted and whenever she will, or she may not as she is very self respecting person, but I’m available for help. I walked out of the house with some books and some clothes. That’s all. And now we are best of friends because of this relationship and this understanding.”
He added, “I started drinking at the age of 20-21 and left when I was 42 years old. I could afford a bottle and used to drink almost a bottle every night. It’s very common for Urdu poetics to become big drunkards because they believe that if they are poets and artistes, they should be carefree and you should drink. I think I had those wrong values. On the other side, all the tehzeeb that I learned in Lucknow didn’t allow me to use foul language, so all the bitterness was compressed inside me. But when I used to drink all those barriers will break and I would become a very nasty man and would use foul language. I used to become another person. It was unhealthy, irrational and causing problem to many people. It impacted my marriage with Honey. If I was a sober and responsible person, the story would have been different.”
Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar married in 1984. However, prior to their marriage, Javed had two children, Zoya Akhtar and Farhan Akhtar, from his first wife, Honey Irani.
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