Gauahar Khan opens up about miscarriage, says she didn’t stop working during second pregnancy: ‘Can’t be unprofessional’

The debate around new parents getting time off from work to focus on their children has been making headlines after Deepika Padukone’s exit from Spirit, reportedly because her requests weren’t agreed to. Actor Gauahar Khan recently talked about the challenges she faced while trying to tackle the difficulties that come with becoming a mother at the age of 39. Gauahar, who is expecting her second child, revealed that this is actually her third time getting pregnant, as she lost her first child to a miscarriage.

She told Debinna Bonnerjee on her podcast that she feels lucky to be able to conceive at this age, as she always wished to have multiple children. However, losing her first child took a big toll on her. “I think this was the right time for something like this, and I was 36 when I got married. We knew we had to start trying for a child within a year. I had a miscarriage before, and it took me at least 1 to 1.5 years to recover from that and to be able to tell myself that ‘okay, let’s try.’ When I conceived my son Zehaan, everything went smoothly.” She went on to explain the story behind her first pregnancy and added, “At that point you assume that everything is going to be fine, and no one had expected me to lose my child. It was extremely difficult, and it took me some time to get over it, so by the time I gave birth to Zehaan, I was already 39, and if I wanted another child, it was now or never.”

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When asked about how she handled her work while trying to cope with everything personally, Gauahar admitted that she never stopped working. She said, “I was working throughout my first pregnancy, and during the first three months of both these pregnancies, I was shooting for an action role. This time around I was blasting bombs while shooting the finale of Fauji 2 in Pune. If I am in the middle of a shoot, I can’t be unprofessional in my duties as an actor. The action directors are very accommodating, and they shoot the scenes accordingly.” The Fauji 2 shared that she hardly ever took a break from working, and she was actually shooting for another action role a month before her miscarriage.

“Actually, while I was shooting Shiksha Mandal, I was pregnant with my first child, and I was still shooting all the action scenes, including horse riding. Just a month after that I lost my child, but it’s a very strange thing that every time I am pregnant, I end up doing action roles and shooting difficult scenes,” added Gauahar.