EXCLUSIVE: Neena Gupta breaks silence on Masaba Gupta's divorce, having her out of wedlock & single parenting

For our fourth episode of Woman Up, we have Neena Gupta speaking about a few things for the first time. From discussing her life with Viv Richards, and having Masaba Gupta out of wedlock to battling social judgments around that and even daughter Masaba's divorce from Madhu Mantena, she opens up about everything.

By Nayandeep Rakshit

Updated on Mar 04, 2020 | 08:42 PM IST | 1.2M

EXCLUSIVE: Neena Gupta breaks silence on Masaba Gupta's divorce, having her out of wedlock & single parenting

Neena Gupta has always been a fierce woman, fighting for her own rights. She's never conformed to any usual societal norms and turned out to be the Modern Indian Woman. For our fourth episode of Woman Up, we have Neena speaking about a few things for the first time. From discussing her life with Viv Richards, and having Masaba Gupta out of wedlock to battling social judgments around that and even daughter Masaba's divorce from Madhu Mantena, this undoubtedly is her most unapologetic interview.

She says she was judged for having Masaba when she decided to keep her. "For some, I was brave. But it wasn't about being brave. My media personality is very different from what I'm in real life. I think it's not difficult to decide whether to have the baby or not. The decision is not as difficult but keeping up with your decision and what comes with it was. Initially, I was called brave and that gave a negative image to me. I don't know why but suddenly I started getting these negative roles on TV."

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She further adds, "A lot of people started being sympathetic. My friends started telling me, 'Ill marry you, at least your daughter will have a surname. And I was like, just to give her a father's name, I'll get married. I told them I can fend for her myself and I started working relentlessly to make things work."

Daughter Masaba hit headlines last year after she decided to separate from her husband Madhu Mantena. Neena has since then maintained a stoic silence on the issue but in this interview, she finally breaks her silence and admits, "I was devastated when I heard it. Actually, it was Masaba who helped me come to terms with it. Initially, I couldn't accept it at all and it affected me." Once, Masaba had revealed that she had told Neena about her idea of living in and her mom had clearly objected.

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Now, she says she's changed her mind. "I feel today I'll tell her to go for a live in. Fayda kya hai, itna paisa kharcha karke shaadi Karo and phir divorce kar lo. Toh live in hi kar lol," she signs off.