Actor-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar says dealing with his parents, lyricist Javed Akhtar and actor-writer Honey Irani’s separation at an early age wasn’t easy. In fact, it also impacted him when he decided to end his first marriage with hair stylist Adhuna Bhabani.

“It (deciding on separation) was difficult. I had divorced parents when I was a kid and I know what it felt like. There was a huge part of me that was like, ‘I cannot do this to my own kids’. I felt that it came to a place that Adhuna and I spoke to them openly and honestly, and explained to them why we were taking that step... that it didn’t have anything to do with them,” he told journalist Faye D’Souza on her YouTube channel.

Farhan and Adhuna, who have two daughters, Shakya and Akira, announced their separation in 2016. He added, “This (his divorce from Adhuna) was something between two grown-up people, who, as friends, decided that it (parting ways amicably) was something they wanted to do. But, it’s something that I am going to have to live with for the rest of my life. It’s never going to go away... thinking about, ‘Did they (his daughters) deserve this?’. That’s something I’ll have to live with. The fact that it happened to me as a kid played a huge role in how I feel about it now.”

Farhan got married to actor Shibani Dandekar in 2022.

Javed Akhtar was married to actor-writer Honey Irani, with whom he has two children — Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar. Their relationship fell apart around 1980. Javed and Honey divorced in 1985. Javed fell in love with actor Shabana Azmi and they got married in 1984.