'Marriage goes beyond beauty'- Ronit

Glam divas fall for married men

SHARA ASHRAF | NEW DELHI

London-based newspaper Daily Mail recently reported that actress Shilpa Shetty has caused a "rift" between Raj Kundra, a London-based tycoon and his wife Kavita. Kavita allegedly blamed her husband€™s obsession for the actress to be the cause of their break-up.

Rani Mukerji€™s alleged relationship with producer-director Aditya Chopra is also believed to be the cause of split from his wife Payal Malhotra.

Zubin Irani also allegedly left his wife Mona because he fell head over heels in love with Smriti Malhotra, now known as Smriti Irani. Mona was a model coordinator by profession and was willing to promote Smriti€™s career. She found her marriage breaking as Smriti allegedly got close to her husband. Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie also earned the title of "husband snatcher" when she caused a rift between Brad Pit and Jennifer Aniston.

In the past, actor Dharmendra converted to Islam to marry Hema Malini without divorcing his first wife Prakash Kaur.

Former cricketer Azarhuddin too abandoned his wife Naureen to marry actress Sangeeta Bijlani.

What makes these pretty, successful women fall for men who are "already taken"? Does it boost their ego or it€™s just that when they come across their "Mr Right", he incidentally turns out to be someone€™s husband? Do they ever think of the consequences of being "the other woman" in someone€™s life? And how a bond as strong as marriage breaks due to someone€™s intervention?

Says Ridhima Raina, a Delhi-based model, "I think some women have no inhibitions. They follow their heart without thinking of the consequences. Their beauty gives them a destructive over-confidence, making them €˜irresistible material€™ for men bored of their marriage."

Actress Sonal Udeshi has a different take on this. "Why should only the actress be blamed? Of course women should discourage the advances of a married man but isn€™t the man who is already committed to someone more at fault if he enters into another relationship? It always takes two hands to clap," she says.

Agrees psychiatrist Sameer Parikh. "If a man cannot stand by his commitment and leave one for another, why blame the woman? I don€™t agree with the term "home-breaker" or "husband-snatcher". It takes two people to break a home, not one," he says.

Actor Karan Oberoi opines that a beautiful woman can be a "potential threat" to a marriage. "If a man is not getting what he desires in his marriage, he will end up looking outside. Of course a beautiful woman is a mystery and a man can find it difficult to resist her. She can cause a marriage to break up," says Karan.

Dolly Gupta, a model coordinator, says, "If the woman in question is very attractive, as usually actresses are, she can become a big threat to the marriage. I have come across some very attractive women who prey on someone else€™s boyfriend or husband because it gives them a high. If they win, it flatters their ego and they feel the world is at their feet."

Zameer Khan, a PR manager, says that marriage is not about "looks" but the "understanding" you share with your €˜significant other€™. "If there is a vacuum in the relationship and the man walks into someone who shares the same wavelength, sparks will naturally fly," says Zameer.

Agrees actor Ronit Roy. He says that his wife is the most beautiful woman for him on the earth and men who get attracted to someone else€™s wife and give up their families are not "real men".

"Marriage goes well beyond beauty. It is a bond no other woman is capable of breaking, even if she is extremely beautiful," says Ronit.

@ Sukhi and Neeti: you guys are just too much yaar.. 😆