Neelima Azeem Recalls Shahid Kapoor Living With Grandparents After Her Divorce: Wasn't All Hunky-Dory... - EXCLUSIVE

Being

a single mother is never easy, but balancing a career, coping with the emotional aftermath of divorce, and raising a child makes it even more challenging. Neelima Azeem managed to do it all, and with remarkable grace. Shahid Kapoor, now a leading Bollywood star, was just three years old when his parents separated and he primarily grew up with his mother at his maternal grandparents’ home. The veteran actress candidly shared that it wasn’t easy for a young Shahid to process the split. Yet, while ensuring he was raised with love and stability, Neelima continued building a full-fledged acting career and raised him largely on her own.

Neelima Azeem On How Shahid Kapoor Dealt With Her, Pankaj Kapur's Divorce

On Zoom's Mother’s Day special series, Letters To My Mom, Neelima opened up about the difficult phase. She exclusively shared, "I did not have any support from my then-married partner, and so I must have made lots of mistakes, and I must have been a little caught up with my own self because it all ended up in a divorce very early in the marriage. I was extremely young, and I don’t know how well I coped with it, and my kid had to see that and experience it. So it wasn't all hunky-dory for him, but he had great grandparents who were great parents also, so they were there for us. Both my mother and my father were the people that influenced him as a child. Till he was nine years old, he lived at his maternal grandparents' home."

She revealed that she had to choose a more financially stable path, so she became a full-time actress. Neelima recalled, "When I came to this town in 1990, I had 4 and a half thousand in my hands, which I had earned myself, which I did not take from my parents. I was very independent and nobody understands what it must have been like to come to Bombay from Delhi with 4 and a half thousand. Is it even conceivable to you? It’s crazy. And I did not borrow a buck in my life. I didn’t ask my family for help. I just managed it."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONDmUwNIL7g

She said that fate played a very important role in her life and she felt extremely fortunate. After coming to Mumbai, she started her search again and overnight, she became one of the most popular stars on television, even becoming a national and international favourite.