Veteran actor Zeenat Aman is an icon, especially among youngsters who are often drawn to the ideas about love, relationships and marriage that she shares on social media. The actor was also a trailblazer in her prime, challenging the conventional image of a Bollywood heroine with her bold roles and unconventional screen presence. Despite being a hugely successful star, Zeenat’s personal life was ridden with difficulties, including a troubled marriage to late actor Mazhar Khan .
In a 1999 interaction with Simi Garewal , the actor spoke at length about her troubled marriage with Mazhar Khan and how she stayed in the relationship for 12 years despite knowing about her husband’s infidelity. Because i was pregnant with my first child and Mazhar was not there, it was a difficult time since the first year. I’m not necessarily saying that it was the best thing for him either. There was a big article in Stardust magazine at that time about the woman that Mazhar was seeing. It’s reality.”
She said, “The first year after marriage, I realised I had made a mistake but since I had made the decision and done it against everybody’s will, I decided to live by it and make it work.
She later revealed that she wanted to end the marriage soon after the birth of her first son but chose to stay for the sake of her children. She revealed that during that time, she was in and out of every hospital in Mumbai, learned to give injections and do dressings, and even travelled overseas to find doctors for her husband’s treatment. She later had their second son and was determined to leave the marriage and return to her career when her younger son turned five. However, around that time, Mazhar fell grievously ill. However, by the time her husband’s health problem was resolved, years of caregiving had taken a toll on her. Seeing her husband stop helping himself and continue harming his health ultimately forced Zeenat to leave the marriage. His kidneys eventually failed, but this happened after Zeenat had already left the marriage. Zeenat also spoke about how alone she felt while caring for her husband. After Mazhar’s death, Zeenat alleged that his family did not allow her to pay her last respects and that ‘his mother and sister took every last penny he had.
Zeenat had married Mazhar in 1985, and the couple went on to have two sons, Azaan and Zahaan. She also revealed that Mazhar lived with a medical bag outside his body for 18 months and that she learned how to change it. Mazhar passed away in 1998 due to kidney failure.
Zeenat shared that she didn’t just stay in the marriage; she gave it her all and tried “everything under the sun” to save her husband. Zeenat said she was very close to a nervous breakdown. She said Mazhar would take seven painkillers a day despite requests from her and their children to stop. She said she spent years taking care of him but rarely had anyone ask how she was doing. She also said there was a time when her sons were turned against her and that Mazhar’s family tried to take her children away from her.
