Actor Vivek Oberoi has never shied away from speaking about the highs and lows that have shaped his journey, both personally and professionally. In a recent conversation, the actor opened up about one of the earliest and most painful tragedies of his life—the loss of his childhood sweetheart.
Vivek Oberoi on losing her childhood sweetheart to blood cancer
Speaking with Prakhar Gupta on his YouTube channel, Vivek shared how he witnessed his first love pass away when she was just 17. At the time, Vivek was 18. “You have to be open again and feel again even if you go through heartbreak. For example, I lost my childhood sweetheart to blood cancer. I was 18 and she was 17, and I saw her pass away right in front of my eyes,” he said.
Looking back, Vivek said he first fell in love at the age of 13 and believed she would be his partner for life. “We fell in love when I was 13, and it was that kind of ‘puppy love’ where we gave each other cards. I was very sure that she was the girl I was going to marry when I grew older, and we had thought about getting married, having kids and the rest of our lives together. Suddenly, she went away. She was diagnosed in January, and she was gone by March,” he recalled.
How his girlfriend's death affected Vivek Oberoi
The tragedy left a deep impact on him, creating a lasting fear of heartbreak. “I have always been very emotional and sensitive throughout my life. I don’t like living in fear of getting my heart broken again, because I have done that before, and I know what that feels like. When I insulate myself after a heartbreak, I get very lonely, and that isn’t my nature. If you do something completely against your nature, you will automatically feel like a fish out of the water,” he reflected.
In an earlier interview with Men’sXP, Vivek had also spoken about the heartbreaking moment when he realised the extent of her illness. “I kept trying to call her, but she wasn’t answering. She had mentioned earlier that she wasn’t feeling well, and I thought it was just a cold. When I couldn’t reach her or her family, I called her cousin, who told me she was in the hospital. I rushed there. We had been in a relationship for 5–6 years, and she was the girl of my dreams. Then I found out she was in the final stage of acute Lymphoblastic leukemia.”