Harsh Chhaya Recalls Divorce With Shefali Shah, Says He ‘Regretted, Shouted’ After Separation

Actress Shefali Shah has been married to filmmaker Vipul Shah for more than two decades. Before Vipul, however, she was married to actor Harsh Chhaya. The two had worked together on Zee TV’s popular show Hasratein. They tied the knot in 1994 and eventually parted ways in 2000. Over the years, both Harsh and Shefali have spoken about their separation as a difficult chapter in their lives. Now, in a recent conversation with Lallantop, Harsh has once again opened up about his divorce from Shefali, while sharing his thoughts on separation, emotional recovery and the rebound dates he went on after their marriage ended.

Harsh Chhaya Opens Up About His Divorce With Shefali Shah

During the interview, Harsh spoke about how divorce continues to carry a certain

stigma, often forcing people to remain trapped in unhappy marriages for years. Reflecting on his own separation from Shefali, he said that every divorce is deeply personal and cannot be viewed through one fixed lens.

He said, “It is a very personal case-to-case kind of thing, our case was very clear, I could see that the relationship was hitting a dead end. When I was told, ‘I cannot stay with you anymore’; 8-9 months before that, I knew this was coming. I was prepared. For me, even though I know what is happening, at that moment I don’t let it affect me mentally, so I focus on work, on myself, because I left Delhi and came to Mumbai for this. Personally, how one deals with it depends on them. I fortunately come from a space where I don’t get shaken easily.”

Harsh further shared that one does not have to pretend to be strong while going through a painful separation. According to him, it is important to sit with the discomfort rather than bury it under a performance of bravery.

He added, “You need to try and stay sane when a situation like this comes; if you are uncomfortable, live with it, don’t try to show yourself as strong. I lived with it for 5-6 months, regretted, shouted, etc. One day, I saw that you are under stress, everyone around you is willing to listen to your story, and share their views. Once I spoke to someone, we discussed each other’s issues, and later we went on a date; it happened a few times and I made it a formula. I went on multiple dates over 2-3 months. It takes time, you don’t have to show your bravery, rather show what you are feeling.”

Speaking further about divorce and the negativity often attached to it, Harsh said that ending a marriage should not be seen as something catastrophic if the relationship has already run its course.

He said, “Two people can’t stay together 24/7; I cannot live with my clone for 365 days. For me, divorce is not a big deal; in fact, if it has to happen, it should happen sooner rather than later, so the relationship is not dragged. When we decided, we got our application back-dated, declaring that we had been living separately for six months. We acted on it quickly.”

‘The Separation Was Pretty Tough’

This is not the first time Harsh has spoken about his split with Shefali. In 2024, during an interview with Siddharth Kannan, the actor had described the separation as a painful phase in his life. He had said, “The separation was pretty tough. It is an old story now. 20-25 years have gone by. For me, it is a closed chapter.”

In an earlier conversation with Hindustan Times, Harsh had also admitted that the breakup hurt, though it did not come as a surprise to him. He said, “It hurt. The separation didn’t take me by surprise. I had seen it coming for almost eight months, and I still look back at it very pragmatically. Two people met, fell in love, got married, and parted ways. One couldn’t do anything about it. I felt it was better to separate than live a life where you don’t know where your marriage is going. After feeling bad and gathering enough sympathy for myself, I finally got out of it in six months.”

Shefali too had spoken about her failed marriage in a 2022 interview with Pinkvilla. Looking back at that phase, she had said, “I have given a long, long chunk of life to that relationship. I worked very hard, and I used to believe that marriages are happily ever after until you realise, okay, it’s a notion. That’s not necessarily how things work in life. It wasn’t that the whole phase wasn’t making me richer or happier, or sane. And after a point in time, you just realise what is better for you, what is better for everyone around. So, not for a second did I think it was because I gave it a lot of time and everything I had in me. And it didn’t work out. It’s just too bad. Why do people make hue and cry about it?”

After her separation from Harsh, Shefali married filmmaker Vipul Shah in 2000. The couple has been together for 25 years and are parents to two sons, Aryaman and Maurya. Harsh Chhaya, meanwhile, married Suneeta Sengupta in 2003. On the professional front, Harsh was recently seen in the web series Undekhi Season 4.