Javed Akhtar recently opened up about his failed marriage with his first wife, Honey Irani, taking on “60 to 70 percent” of the responsibility for its breakdown. The writer-lyricist reflected that if he had the same understanding of life in his younger years as he does today, things might have turned out differently. During a heartfelt conversation in the new docu-series Angry Young Men, Javed shared his thoughts and Farhan Akhtar also accepted that he felt that his father betrayed them all.
Javed Akhtar said, “Honey is one person in the world towards whom I feel guilty. And she’s the only person. About 60 to 70 percent 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.”
Javed and Honey first met and fell in love on the sets of Seeta Aur Geeta, where Honey played the cousin of Hema Malini’s character. They married in 1972, but their relationship ended in divorce in 1985. Shortly after, Javed married Shabana Azmi. Despite the separation, Javed and Honey co-parented their children, Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar. In the series, Farhan revealed that he was angry with his father after witnessing the events that led to the split.
Farhan said, “There was a phase when I was angry with him. I felt betrayed by him. There was all those very normal emotions that I did go through as a child growing up.”
Zoya Akhtar also stated, “After the split happened, we ended living with our mother, we ended up spending more time with our mother. But yeah, it took time to go back to normal with my dad. I think Shabana played a big part in creating that normalcy.”
Kids suffer a lot when marriages break, what do you say?
