Neena Gupta says women of her generation ‘didn’t have a need for sex’, were taught to satisfy their husbands like ‘it was a job’

Actor Neena Gupta said that true love can only exist between a parent and a child, and not between partners. Looking back at her youth, she said that women were taught to satisfy their husbands, and not expect anything in return. As a result, she said, they’d make their children the focus of their attention, and stop caring for themslves. In an interview with Ranveer Allahbadia, Neena said that many women, even today, are trapped in loveless marriages with no option to leave.

She was asked to revisit her comments about love and lust, and she said, “Every romantic relationship begins with lust, this much is true. You are attracted to somebody because of their job, their physique, their mind. And then it is lust, because biologically, it is bound to happen. And then you become friends, and then when you live together and get get married, you care about each other. You can call it love. You can’t divorce your child, can you? Wow, I’ve said such a smart thing. You can’t divorce your child.”

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She continued, “My generation didn’t have much of a need for sex. It was like a job, to satisfy your husband. Nobody told us to prioritise our own happiness… It was very difficult in my time. You had to make him happy. There was no romance. Women wanted romance, but they weren’t told that they could ask for it. They derived pleasure from their children, and stopped looking after themselves, and the cycle continued.”

She said that divorces were rare. “Women would have to live with the unhappiness,” she said, but added that things are changing these days, at least in urban cities. She said that she now notices women going on trips with their girl friends, and hanging out independently with them without their husbands present. She said that she no longer asks her husband, Vivek Mehra, to spend time with her, because after a point, she realised that he was never asking her to spend time with him. So, she spends her days watching television, and isn’t bothered about anything else.