- Celina Jaitly revealed her fitness routine was scrutinised during her divorce proceedings
- She worked out 1 to 1.5 hours daily to cope with grief, trauma, and personal challenges
- Her workouts were portrayed negatively in court as self-obsession despite her responsibilities
Celina Jaitly shared an emotional post on Instagram on 12 August, revealing how her commitment to fitness became a subject of scrutiny during her ongoing divorce proceedings. Addressing one of the most difficult phases of her life, Celina spoke about the importance of weightlifting and how it helped her cope with grief, trauma, and personal challenges over the years.
Posting a photograph of herself at the gym, the actor questioned why the one aspect of her life that gave her strength and stability was used against her in court. She said that maintaining a fitness routine was never about vanity but about discipline and survival during some of her darkest moments.
About Celina Jaitly's post
Explaining how exercise became a constant source of support, Celina wrote that she had to defend spending around an hour to an hour and a half each day working out during her divorce case.
"IMAGINE HAVING TO DEFEND WEIGHTLIFTING IN COURT. Of all the things filed against me in my bizarre divorce proceedings, perhaps the most incomprehensible was having to answer for the fact that I spent one to 1 hour a day working out. Honestly, through some of the hardest chapters of my life, working out has been one of the few things that has consistently stood by me."
The actor went on to reflect on the physical and emotional hardships she has endured over the years, including motherhood, the loss of loved ones, and family struggles.
"My body has given birth to 2 sets of twins. It has been shook from the loss of a child, the loss of both my parents, twin #csection, dance injuries, the crisis that has befallen my family, trauma surrounding my brother, & now the unimaginable heartbreak of separation from my children."
Celina explained that despite these overwhelming experiences, she continued to show up at the gym because it offered her a way to process her emotions and regain a sense of control.
"Through all of it, I kept showing up for that 1.5 hour. Not because life was perfect.. Because it wasn't. That hour gave me somewhere to put the grief.... The anger.... The fear... The anxiety. Somewhere to rebuild myself when life kept trying to break me down.... It made me realise that for those precious moments, the only weight that mattered was the one on the barbell."
However, she revealed that even this personal commitment to fitness was allegedly portrayed negatively during court proceedings.
"Yet, that 1.5 hour of lifting weights was used against me in court... as 'Self obsession'. How dare she? How dare she take time to work out?"
The actor stressed that her workouts came only after completing numerous responsibilities at home and caring for her children.
"After cooking. After cleaning. After taking care of the children. After feeding a baby through the night. After taking care of twins plus one. After everything that life demanded of me, somehow that 1.5 hr of lifting weights became something I had to answer for in a COURT."
Talking about the values she learned from her father, Celina said discipline had always been an important part of her upbringing and was something she hoped to pass on to her children.
"I never thought I would need to be answerable for a value my Fauji father instilled in me from the day I was born. Discipline. Because showing up for yourself every day, whether through a sport, a workout, or a gym, equals discipline. Discipline equals accountability, and that becomes the example you set, specifically for your children."
Concluding her post, Celina questioned whether dedicating time to her physical and mental well-being could ever be considered wrong. She said weightlifting was not the burden she carried but rather the source of strength that helped her manage all the other challenges in her life.
"Was it really wrong for me to lift weights for one & a half hours a day? Or was lifting those weights precisely what gave me the strength to carry everything else? The weight on the barbell was never the heaviest weight I carried. It was simply the one weight I could choose to put down."
Background
Celina Jaitly married Peter Haag in 2010 after stepping away from mainstream Bollywood. The couple welcomed twin boys in 2012, followed by another set of twins in 2017. However, one of the infants born in 2017 died shortly after birth.
Peter Haag filed for divorce in an Austrian court last year.
Mumbai Police recently registered an FIR against Peter Haag after Celina filed a complaint. Haag has reportedly been booked under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita in connection with allegations of physical violence, cruelty, criminal intimidation, and sustained harassment.