Fabulous Lives Vs Bollywood Wives is back with its third season, featuring new entrants from Delhi—Ranbir Kapoor’s sister, Riddhima Kapoor Sahni, Shalini Passi, and Kalyani Saha Chawla—joining the original Mumbai crew, Maheep Kapoor, Seema Sajdeh, Bhavana Panday, and Neelam Kothari.
In one of the episodes, Neelam, who is currently married to actor Samir Soni, opened up about her divorce from Rishi Sethia for the first time. Speaking to Ektaa Kapoor, she recalled the moment when her daughter Ahana googled her and discovered that she had been divorced, which left her deeply shattered.
She said, “I came from work, and Ahana was with her friends. Normally, jumping around, they are screaming and shouting. But this time, there was pin-drop silence. And Ahana came to me and asked, “Mama, you never told me you were divorced.” I just died. I was stumped; I had no words. I told Ahana, “First of all, how do you know?” So she said, “No, you’re a celebrity and my friends and me were sort of googling you. The first thing that came up was that you were divorced. You were married.” The first thing that came to my mind was that this was not how I wanted my daughter to find out.”
Furthermore, Neelam was seen breaking down in tears and talking about her divorce. She stated that after marriage, she moved to a new country. “I was told to wear Indian clothes, give up non-veg, and don’t drink. I was fine with everything. Changing my name also, according to me, people do that, but changing my identity, that is something I was not okay with. I reached a point where I questioned myself, “How am I allowing this?” I used to be in a supermarket or going out for lunch, and someone would come up to me and say, “Are you Neelam the actress?” I had to say no.”
This left her shattered and she decided to leave. Neelam shared that today she takes pride in having been a successful actress, having worked in 40 films throughout her career.
“It was hard, but I wanted to make it work. Because, for love, you do crazy things. I think it is something no woman on this earth should ever have to deal with losing your identity,” she concluded.
