Happy birthday Milind Soman: When the actor, wife Ankita destroyed stereotypes, addressed their 26 years age difference

The Milind Soman-Ankita Konwar marriage and its success will inspire many more to chase one’s dreams and never hold oneself back. On Milind’s 55th birthday, here’s a look at their love story.

In April 2018, when one of India’s best-known supermodels Milind Soman tied the knot with Ankita Konwar, many were taken by surprise. lf you look at his Instagram feed from before will show that he was always open about his life, and that is the policy he followed when it came to his romance too. Milind and Ankita were forthright about their age gap too - Milind was 52 and Ankita was 26 when they got married!

Happy birthday Milind Soman: The model and Ankita Konwar got married in 2018.

It has been two years since their wedding and the two look just as much in love as they did then. However, it wasn’t really love at first sight, though they were attracted to each other. Ankita had spoken in detail about how it all began. Speaking to Humans of Bombay, she had said how she, a flight attendant with Air Asia, was coming out of the shocking death of her boyfriend, when she met Milind.

She said: “I decided to move out of the country & started working with Air Asia, as a cabin crew in Malaysia. It was at that time that my then boyfriend, suddenly passed away. It was heartbreaking–it felt like there was no coming back. A couple of months later, I got posted in Chennai. I was staying in a hotel with my colleagues. Once, in the lobby, I saw a tall, rugged man. It was Milind Soman! I was a big fan! So I went to say hello, but he was busy. A few days later, I saw him again at the hotel’s nightclub.”

At the nightclub something happened; both kept looking at each other. At the behest of her friends, she went ahead and asked him to dance with her and he agreed. That’s how it all began - few days later, they began texting each other and soon, started meeting too.

However, though Ankita loved being with Milind, she couldn’t bring herself to surrender heart and soul. What Milind told her after that convinced her that he was the man for her. “But I still couldn’t bring myself to get fully involved. Until one day, I told him that because of my past, with my boyfriend, there was a part of me that couldn’t let go. To which he said, ‘When I fell in love with you, I fell in love with all of you. Even the part that carries the burden of your past. So don’t be afraid, we’re in this together.’ That’s when I knew–this was the man for me!”

This was in 2013. “We dated for 5 years after that–until we decided to get married!”

Naturally, with an age gape of 26 years, any parent anywhere in the world, would be worried. Ankita’s parents were no different. “My family & a few others were worried because of the age gap between us. But it wasn’t an issue for us. So when they saw us together & they saw how happy I was around him, they agreed too!”

In an interview with Hindustan Times Brunch, Ankita had addressed the issue in greater depth. “When I decided to go out with him, I got to know the person he is. I started liking that person, adoring him over time, and eventually I fell in love with him. My friends were a little concerned, like every friend is when a new guy enters a friend’s life. But once they got to know him for real, they were supportive. My family, on the other hand, had a whole lot of questions about all our crazy differences, the age gap being a serious one amongst them. But again, when they met Milind and got to know how humble and real he was, they all accepted us wholeheartedly.”

There is, however, an interesting bit of math about their age gap. Milind is, of course, younger than her dad, but he is a year older than her mother. On being asked about it, Ankita laughed and said: “Milind is not older than my father. He is a year older than my mother though, and my mom and dad have an age gap of 10 years. So you do the math!”

In their five years of dating, they travelled the world - Norway, Spain, Portugal. Ankita spoke about how Milind proposed to her: “He proposed to me on a cold November day on top of a hill in Tromso, Norway. The Arctic in the winter is breathtaking. Milind took me to a hilltop where we could see the city spread below us, and just as we were staring into a painting-like view, he said, marry me.”

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