Avantika Malik has spoken openly about the end of her marriage to actor Imran Khan, revealing that it was Imran who first suggested the two spend time apart. After six months of separation, the couple decided together to divorce. However, Avantika says she does not look back on their 18-year relationship as a failure.
Avantika says Imran was the one who suggested separation
Avantika Malik shared her thoughts in a conversation with Soha Ali Khan on Soha’s YouTube channel. She met Imran when she was just 19. The two married in 2011 and later became parents to a daughter, Imaara. During the interview, Soha asked who first brought up the idea of separating, and Avantika named Imran without any hesitation.“It was him actually. I would have never done it. Probably to my own detriment, but I would have never done it. It was his decision,” she said.She explained that Imran first wanted the two of them to “take some time apart”. Six months later, they mutually agreed that divorce was the way forward. Avantika described the early days of the separation as deeply painful because she was letting go of more than a marriage. She was also giving up the future she had pictured for herself.“When we initially separated, it is the death of the way you perceived your life would be, what you imagined your life would be, how it would play out. It’s probably the death of the most intimate relationship in your life at that point,” she said.
Avantika Malik says, ‘We were unfair to each other’
Looking back, Avantika said both she and Imran changed a great deal between their late teens, their twenties and their early thirties.“Over the span of 18 years, you grow, you evolve, you become different people, you mature,” she said.She also admitted that she entered the relationship carrying emotional baggage that she did not understand at the time. At 19, she said, it was easy to believe that another person was responsible for her happiness.“At such a tender age, you don’t even realise that it’s your own responsibility. It’s like, ‘Oh, this person is in front of me, and they are responsible for me being happy and content.’ You don’t realise that over the years, you end up kind of damaging the relationship because you have these unrealistic expectations from it,” she said.Avantika made it clear that the divorce was not caused by one dramatic incident. She said the strain built up slowly.“For Imran and me, because we had been together for 18 years and from such a young age, and we both went through so much in our 20s and early 30s that, of course, somewhere along the way, I think we were unfair to each other, and so I can’t say it was one big incident. I think small things over the years,” she explained.
Avantika Malik says they tried to save the marriage
According to Avantika, the couple tried again and again to work through their problems before accepting that the marriage could not continue.“We gave it everything. Even when it was on the brink of, ‘Can we do this anymore?’ We were always like, ‘Let’s work harder’,” she said.She added that although the final decision felt sudden, the two had come close to separating on earlier occasions as well. In the end, they reached a point where they accepted that letting each other find happiness elsewhere was better than forcing the relationship to survive.Even though she is disappointed with how things ended, Avantika still finds meaning in the years they spent together.“I feel like we did it for 18 years. Through being kids, fame, failure, success, all kinds of things – so I am actually quite proud of the two of us, to be honest. I am a little disappointed in how our relationship ended, but I feel like if you can do your best for 18 years and kind of build a family, it is a success,” she said.
What Avantika would tell her 19-year-old self
Soha also asked what relationship advice Avantika would give her younger self today. Avantika said she would tell the 19-year-old version of herself not to get married. Her first priority, she said, would be to become independent and secure in her own abilities.“I never became an independent young woman who was confident in her own abilities. I never became that. So I would tell the 19-year-old, ‘Hang on, there’s enough time for marriage and love and kids. First, get your shit together’.”Imran and Avantika now co-parent their daughter Imaara.
