‘There was nobody else’
Pooja Bhatt has finally broken her silence on the end of her 11-year marriage to Manish Makhija, and it wasn’t for any dramatic reason you might expect. In a recent chat, the actor-filmmaker revealed that it wasn’t infidelity or a big fight that caused the split—it was something far more painful: loneliness.
Addressing long-standing assumptions, Pooja said many friends asked if there was someone else when she decided to call it quits in 2014. Her answer? A firm no. “There was nobody else. I wasn’t even thinking about another person,” she shared. According to Pooja, the marriage simply lost its emotional connection over time. “I ended my marriage because I felt lonely in that relationship. When you are living with someone and still feel alone, that relationship has stopped being a relationship,” she said.
Pooja met Manish while working on her directorial debut Paap, and the couple tied the knot in a private ceremony in Goa in 2003. But after more than a decade together, she realized something had to change.
‘I had lost myself as a woman’
The 52-year-old didn’t hold back about the toll the marriage took on her sense of self. “I told him that our relationship had begun with friendship and trust. But I felt it was over. We had lost each other, and somewhere along the way, I had lost myself as a woman. I wanted myself back,” she revealed.
Pooja made it clear that continuing would have felt dishonest. “It would have been a lie to continue the marriage, and I cannot live a lie,” she said. The decision wasn’t about blaming her partner—it was about taking ownership of her own happiness. “I was very clear that I would not spend the rest of my life blaming another person for my unhappiness.”
She also pointed to her lack of desire for motherhood as a sign the marriage wasn’t working. “One of the reasons I knew my marriage wasn’t working was that I didn’t want to have children. I love children, but the desire to become a mother never came. I listened to my body and my instincts,” she shared.
‘We don’t speak anymore’
While things were initially cordial after the separation, Pooja revealed that the former couple are no longer in touch. “Munish and I don’t speak anymore. We haven’t spoken for a very long time. There was a period when I genuinely thought we were friends. Then the lockdown happened, and I think it changed people in many ways. Masks came on, but certain masks also came off,” she said.
Despite the distance, there’s no bad blood. “I truly wish him well. There is no malice, no resentment. I have moved on,” she asserted. Today, Pooja believes the most important relationship in her life is the one she shares with herself. “I am the captain of my own ship. I have been fortunate to have wonderful relationships, but today I am enjoying the most profound and sacred relationship of all—the relationship I have with myself,” she said.
As for love in the future? She’s open but not desperate. “I am content. I am open to a relationship, but I am not looking for a solution. I am looking for a companion in the truest sense of the word. If one comes along, wonderful. If not, life is still good.”