Javed Akhtar has opened up about how alcoholism impacted his marriage with first wife Honey Irani.
Appearing for a Mojo Story interview, he said, “All the tehzeeb that I learned in Lucknow didn’t allow me to use foul language, so all the bitterness was compressed inside me. But when I used to drink, all those barriers would break.”
“I would become a very nasty man and use foul language. I used to become another person. It was unhealthy, irrational, and causing problem to many people. It impacted my marriage with Honey. If I was a sober and responsible, the story would have been different,” the celebrity added.
He went on to detail the time when he slowly started becoming addicted to alcohol.
Javed recalled, “I started drinking at the age of 20-21 and left when I was 42 years old. I could afford a bottle and used to drink almost a bottle every night.”
“It’s very common for Urdu poetics to become big drunkards because they believe that if they are poets and artistes, they should be carefree and you should drink. I think I had those wrong values,” he reflected.
Honey married him in 1972 and had devoted herself to become a home-maker.
According to reports from that time, the two had a rocky relationship, eventually separating in 1978 when Javed got involved with Shabana Azmi.
