Om Puri's first wife found out he was cheating when she was pregnant: ‘I decided it was best to leave’

Om Puri's first wife Seema Kapoor opened up about the tough time in her relationship with the actor when she found out he was having an affair.

Actor Om Puri's first wife Seema Kapoor opened up in detail about their relationship and their troubled marriage. In an interview with Siddharth Kannan on his YouTube channel, the dancer shared that their marriage fell apart when she found out that he was having an affair with another woman when she was pregnant. Although she wanted to mend things, it became out of her control. (Also read: Shabana Azmi says society makes you feel ‘incomplete’ if you can't have children: ‘You have to work hard to…’)

Om Puri's marriage to Seema Kapoor lasted for 8 months. (HT Photo)

What Seema said

During the interaction, Seema opened up about the time of shooting for the film City of Joy, which marked a stressful time for her relationship with the actor. Speaking in Hindi, Seema said, “My good friend Renu Saluja, Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s first wife, knew about the affair. But she and Sudhir Mishra and everyone else did not tell me much about what was happening thinking that it was not that serious after all. They felt that he’d get back to his life after the shoot. I found out about the affair much later, when I went all the way to Delhi. He called me up and told me that he was seeing someone else, and my friends said that he was just seeking attention. But there was something about his tone, and I could recognize that something was serious this time.”

‘He sent ₹25,000 via his secretary’

She went on to add that Om asked for divorce and what happened when the baby did not make it. “When I met him afterwards, he did not say anything and I thought it was still all okay. He left the city for a shoot soon, and that time he used to receive a lot of letters and there, I discovered love letters. I was shattered. I never wanted to divorce him, despite the affair. I wanted to mend things, because I was pregnant. He knew I was pregnant, but this was a source of insecurity for Nandita… things became overwhelming; Puri sahab would drink too much, and Nandita would make a scene. One night, I decided that it was best to leave. I still thought everything would be okay… that he would miss me… It was not easy.”

Om Puri married Seema in 1990, and their marriage lasted for eight months. He then married journalist Nandita Puri. The veteran actor died at the age of 66 in 2017, after having a heart attack in his Mumbai residence.