A 2020 Facebook post by Rupali Ganguly’s step-daughter, Esha Verma, resurfaced online two days ago, sparking a controversy. In the post, Esha had alleged that Rupali had an affair with her father, Ashwin K Verma (who the actress is currently married to) for 12 years, leading to his separation from her mother. The Anupamaa actress & Ashwin tied the knot in 2013 and have a son together.

Esha’s 2020 post read: “Does anyone know the real story of Rupali Ganguly? She has had an affair with Ashwin K Verma for 12 years while he was in his second marriage. Ashwin has two daughters from his previous marriages. She is nothing but a cruel-hearted woman who has done nothing but tried to separate me and my sister, his own daughters from their father.”

Reacting to the post which resurfaced, Ashwin put out a statement on X, which read, “I understand that my younger daughter still holds a lot of hurt about the dissolution of her parent’s relationship, as divorce is a difficult experience that can greatly affect and harm the children of that marriage.”

In his post, Ashwin added, “Marriages end for many reasons, and my relationship with my second wife had multiple challenges that led to our separation — challenges that were between she and I and that had nothing to do with any other person.”

Soon after this, on Monday, Esha, who is based in New Jersey, put out a statement saying that she stands by the claims she made in 2020. Excerpts from the post read, “This isn’t just a headline; it’s my life, my childhood, and the pain I endured then and still feel today. I’m choosing to stand by my experiences, because some truths need to be heard. Although I first spoke out about this four years ago, I’ve grown, matured and healed a lot since then.”

She added, “My father and his wife may deny these claims, but I believe their response is rooted in fear of the truth finally surfacing. I love my father deeply and idolized him, but he chose to exclude me from his life. Watching her rise in the entertainment world with a public image so far from reality has added to the hurt, especially as she plays a character who champions the values she disregarded in real life.”

When we reached out to Ashwin, he said that he has nothing more to say on the subject. Rupali did not comment till the time of going to press.

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On Sunday, a Reddit post went viral after a user shared snippets of an old Facebook comment made by Esha Verma, the daughter of businessman Ashwin K Verma. In the comment, Esha accused actor Rupali Ganguly of having an affair with her father while he was still married to her mother, describing Rupali as “cruel-hearted”. The post quickly made waves online, leading Ashwin to issue a statement on X denying the claims. In response, Esha posted on Instagram (see top right), saying, “There’s a darker side to this story... All I ask for is compassion as it unfolds.”

As we reach out to her, Esha reiterates, “My parents got married in 1997 and didn’t divorce till 2008. We have documentation to show that... Rupali has posed as if they (she and Ashwin) were friends and in love earlier than that. There are pictures of (Rupali) as an actor in the commercials my father directed. That’s where the affair began; he would film for three months at a time and come home (to New Jersey) for a short time. We didn’t know about it then, but Rupali pretty much knew about all of us.”

Ashwin and Rupali got married in 2013.

Esha’s post from 2021 with Rupali and Ashwin has also raised questions. The 26-year-old explains, “I posted that picture because I wanted to show he is my dad. He doesn’t acknowledge it; there are only pics of him with Rupali and their son on his account, but nowhere is a picture of me and my sister. They say they are a happy family, it’s like we are non existent.”

Esha wanted to keep contact with her father, but says, “Rupali threatened my mother. If I spoke to him on call, she’d scream in the background. She even cornered me when I went to visit him in Mumbai. She told me, ‘You will regret if you ever do this again or say you want your parents to meet’. I was always afraid to go to India and couldn’t stay longer than two days with him.”

The last message she got from her dad was a WhatsApp text telling her to take down the 2020 post, after which she deleted the app. She adds, “Rupali has no contact with me. The biggest risk is my father wouldn’t want me in his life at all, so it’s not much of a difference. I’m going to lose more than I gain from this. But this is my truth.”

We reached out to Rupali and her team for a reaction, but didn’t get a response till the time of going to press.