Farhan Akhtar opened up about having to deal with his parents' divorce at an early age. His father Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani parted ways when he was still a kid. In a new conversation with Faye D'Souza on her YouTube channel, Farhan shared how it was ‘difficult’ to process the impact it had on his marriage and relationships.

What Farhan said

Talking about his father's divorce and his own separation from ex-wife Adhuna Akhtar after 15 years of marriage, Farhan said, “It was difficult. A certain aspect of it was of course that I had been through having divorced parents when I was a kid. I know what it felt like and there was a huge part of me that was like I cannot do this to my own kids. I felt that it came to a place that if Adhuna and myself spoke to them openly and honestly, and explain to them why we are taking this kind of step, that it doesn't have anything to do with them. It’s not because of them, it’s not because of anything they did, they said, or because they are here.”

He continued, "This is something between two grown up people, who as friends decided that this is something that they want to do. That’s the best we could do, but it’s something that I am going to have to live with for the rest of my life. It’s never going to entire go away thinking about ‘Did they deserve this?’. It’s going to keep coming up. That’s something I guess I’ll just have to live with. The fact that it had happened to me as a kid played a huge role in how I feel about it now.”

Farhan and Adhuna announced their separation in 2016. They have two daughters, Shakya and Akira, together. Farhan then started dating Shibani Dandekar and the two got married in 2022.

More details

Javed Akhtar was married to former child artiste and writer Honey Irani, with whom he has two children, Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar. Their relationship fell apart around 1980. Javed and screenwriter Honey got married in 1972 and divorced in 1985. Javed fell in love with Shabana Azmi and they got married in 1984.

Farhan had recently talked about growing up with his father in the docuseries Angry Young Men. He shared how he felt ‘betrayed’ as a child when his father Javed Akhtar married actor Shabana Azmi.

On the work front, Farhan is set to direct Don 3, with Ranveer Singh and Kiara Advani.