Dilip Kumar had been married to Saira Bano for 16 years when he decided to marry a second time, to a woman named Asma Rehman. However, the marriage was short-lived, and Asma faced intense scrutiny from Dilip's fans, along with numerous unfounded allegations. The situation around her became so toxic that she eventually moved to Canada to escape the attention, but even there, she encountered a “total lack of privacy,” which deeply troubled her.
When Dilip Kumar's second wife left India to avoid media
In a 1983 interview from Vancouver, Canada, shared by the YouTube channel ITMB Shows, Asma revealed that she relocated to Vancouver after her marriage ended. When asked about the constant intrusion in her life, she said she felt helpless. "What do I do? Even I don’t like it but what can one do about it? Even in India, the media was after my life and I thought it will be more peaceful in Vancouver but it feels like I am not meant to have peace," she explained, adding, "I feel there is a total lack of privacy no matter where I go. I really don’t like it."
Asma also talked about her decision to move to Canada, stating that it was partly due to her family but also because she wanted to distance herself from the media. “Firstly, I wanted to move here because I have family here. Secondly, it was because of the media which was hounding me. I just wanted to get away from it but I just can’t,” she shared.
Dilip Kumar and Asma Rehman's relationship
Asma claimed that much of what was written about her relationship with Dilip Kumar was fabricated. “People write whatever they want, they just want to fill up the space,” she said, adding, “95 percent of the things that were written about me were false.” She emphasized that no one could have known the private conversations between her and Dilip, but people had "wild imagination."
She remarked, “Conversations that take place between two people, which are personal and private in nature, how can anyone know about them? But these people’s imagination is just so wild that they just make up stories.”
In his memoir, Dilip Kumar admitted to marrying Asma without informing his first wife, Saira. “I can never forget or forgive myself for the hurt I caused to Saira and the shattering of the unshakeable faith she had in me,” he wrote, recalling the incident. After divorcing Asma, he sought reconciliation with Saira. “Saira stood by me when I admitted the grave mistake and asked her to give me some time to undo the wrong through proper legal processes and restore the sanctity of our marriage of sixteen years. I requested Saira to give me some time to sort it all out,” he explained.
Dilip and Saira remained married until his death in 2021.