Neena Gupta, known for living life on her own terms, opened up about a lesser-known chapter of her life. In the 1980s, she broke societal conventions by welcoming a child out of wedlock. She raised her daughter, Masaba, as a single mother. But before taking that leap of faith, Neena wanted to get married. Her fiance ditched her just days before the wedding.
During a conversation with Humans of Bombay, Neena recalled how the man stepped back without any proper explanation.
"I was engaged to a guy who ditched me at the last minute. In my mind, I was set to have a kid, and the ring ceremony had already happened. I had gone to Delhi to buy my clothes and jewelry, and suddenly I got a call from him saying that we weren't getting married right now. I asked what happened, and he said he needed to get his sinus operation done," Neena said.
Things turned bizarre when the same man proposed to her six months after calling off the wedding.
"I thought it wasn't even a major issue—that operation could be done later. Till date, I don't know the reason behind breaking off the wedding. I kept asking his parents what happened, but they never told me. Then he came back after six months and said he wanted to marry me. I said, 'F**k off. Now I don't want to marry you,'" Neena said candidly.
One question kept haunting Neena: Why had the man called off the wedding in the first place?
"Even then, I asked him, 'First tell me why you wanted to postpone the wedding.' He didn't tell me. So, you don't know what circumstances one is going through. We have to take decisions out of helplessness, hence let's not judge people based on their decisions," she said.
After this heartbreaking incident, Neena got into a relationship with cricketer Vivian Richards and welcomed daughter Masaba out of wedlock. She married Vivek Mehra in 2008. During Masaba Gupta's wedding to Satyadeep Mishra, Neena, Mehra, and Richards all showed up to cheer for their daughter.
On the work front, Neena has carved a niche with stellar performances in series like Panchayat and Masaba Masaba. She will next be seen in Vadh 2 alongside Sanjay Mishra. The film hits theaters on February 6.