Emraan Hashmi opened up about his wife, Parveen Shahani, and admitted that her family had some issues with their marriage early on.

Actor Emraan Hashmi and his wife Parveen Shahani have been married for 18 years. (Photos: Emraan Hashmi/ Instagram)

Actor Emraan Hashmi opened up about his marriage with Parveen Shahani, whom he dated for several years before their wedding in 2006. In an interview, he admitted that some of her relatives weren’t entirely supportive of their decision to tie the knot, primarily because of his on-screen image as a ‘serial kisser’. He credited his wife for being extremely understanding about the kind of roles that he used to take up, and shared that they would initially have a lot of differences over this subject.

Appearing on Shubhankar Mishra’s podcast, the actor was asked about Parveen, whom he said stood by him even before he had a ‘phooti kaudi (not a single penny)’ to his name. “We’ve had 18 years of wonderful, happy marriage. I value her in my life, and I would never leave her,” he said, when asked why there haven’t been any scandalous rumours around him. “Before social media, the lines between on-screen and off-screen image would be blurred, so people thought that I was actually like my characters. Some of them didn’t even know if I was married,” he added.

Emraan said that he never prioritised his career over his relationship with Parveen, and that he never considered putting her aside to focus on his work. “That would be a very sad state of affairs,” he said, adding, “In my life, my relationship, my love for her was the priority. Profession was secondary.” Emraan said that his work was never ‘dented’ by the fact that he was married. Asked about the secret to a happy marriage, he said, “Listen to your wife, even when she’s wrong.”

Emraan continued, “She used to scold me a lot. But she’s also very understanding. If she wasn’t understanding, I wouldn’t have been able to do the kind of roles that I did. Her family had ‘dikkat’, but at the very beginning. I had a strong image, you see. They were like, ‘Wow, she’s going to marry Emraan Hashmi?’ They’ve never met me; I’m talking about distant relatives. But finally, when we met…”