Once who had Viv Richard as her lover and fell pregnant to his child, Neena Gupta, now a single mother to designer Masaba Gupta (Neena and Viv’s daughter), has taken time off her holidaying sojourn in Mukteshwar to warn her fans and all other girls and women NOT TO FALL FOR MARRIED MEN – EVER.
“Please don’t get involved with a married man. I have done this before . I have suffered that’s why I am telling my friends, you all, try not to do it”, pleads Neena in the video she posted on Instagram.
Viv and Neena never married. A single mother, Neena gave birth to a daughter – Masaba Gupta – and raised her, against all odds. Neena is currently married to Vivek Mehra, a Delhi-based chartered accountant.
If it has been tough for Neena, imagine her daughter’s life – growing up in India, going to school and college under society constant gaze.
Neena answered that in an interview, “I feel it was a very selfish act on my part. Some of my friends told me it won’t be fair on part of the child, but kaun sunnta hai uss waqat, blind hotey hain. I also feel sad because she was lonely. I wish I had another child but circumstances weren’t like that.”
She also advised youngsters against following her example. She said, “People should not do what I had done. It is very tough and it is not fair on the child.”
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B9OhLDAFYzN/?utm_source=ig_embed
Having lived in virtual oblivion for almost two decades, Neena managed to resurrect her career with Ayushmaan Khurana’s “Badhai Ho” . Neena was recently seen in Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, again teaming up with Ayushmaan Khurana and Gajraj Rao..
Neena also recently opened up in an interview with PinkVilla. She acknowledged the help she got from her father raising Masaba – without which it was extremely tough. Coming of Neena’s father to her help almost gave her the feeling that she was never a single mother.
“Ït was my love for my daughter which kept me going despite facing several hardships in life”.
Narrating her experience after Neena’s father came to support Neena in raising Masaba, said, “I was never a single mother. I was a single mother for maybe two years, Then my dad came. He left everything and stayed with me. He looked after my household, me, my daughter. He was my man. He was the man in my life. God always compensates. I didn’t have a husband so he game my dad. My mom had died long time ago. And also I had no man in my life who was living with me so it was easy for him to live with me.”
She also admitted how many times she wished she had a normal family, normal family life.
“I had to lose a lot of things while we were together, I had no time to go to a parlour, watch a movie or do womanly things,” she says in the interview.
Talking about bringing up a child out of wedlock as single mother against all social norms, Neena said, “The difficult part is not making a choice of having Masaba. The difficult part is to accept what you have chosen and stand by it.”
“A lot of people told me at that time – we will marry you so that your child gets a name. I said “what the f***. What name? I can earn and look after my daughter,” she added.
While Neena is warning others, she is hurt and still healing from the wounds inflicted on her by Masaba’s failed marriage which ended in divorce. Masaba married film maker Madhu Montena in 2015 and applied for divorce in August last year. They were granted divorce in September 2019.
This is how she dealt with it in her interview with Pinkvilla:
“I was devastated when I heard it. Actually, it was Masaba who helped me come to terms with it. Initially, I couldn’t accept it at all and it affected me.”