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Sonakshi Sinha hid her relationship from parents for 3 years, had to block out all the ‘noise’ during interfaith marriage with Zaheer Iqbal

Actor Sonakshi Sinha talks about the reactions she received when people found out about her interfaith relationship with Zaheer Iqbal.

3 min readNew DelhiDec 6, 2025 10:14 AM IST

Inside Sonakshi Sinha and Zaheer Iqbal's house. (Photo: Instagram/Sonakshi Sinha)

Actors are public figures, and their lives are usually out there for the whole world to pick apart and scrutinise. Actor Sonakshi Sinha went through something similar when she tied the knot with Zaheer Iqbal. Sonakshi recently opened up about how her interfaith marriage became a talking point for the public, and she had to block out that “noise” on her big day.

While appearing on actor Soha Ali Khan’s podcast, Sonakshi was asked about why she chose to hide her relationship in those initial years. She replied, “One reason was, of course, work. When you are a female actor, most of the talk becomes about relationships and who you are dating and who you are spotted with. I wanted people to talk about my work and not my relationships. I work very hard, and I did not want to dilute it by this.” Sonakshi also shared that she did not tell her parents about her relationship for almost three years, and did not want them to find out about it from other sources, so she chose to hide it from everyone. “The other reason was that I had not told my parents about it, actually, I kept it from them for almost 3 years,” she said.

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When asked about the public’s reaction to her interfaith marriage, the Dabangg actor admitted that she was confused why people cared so much. She said, “I don’t know why everyone was so hot and bothered. It’s all just noise, honestly. I am not the first person who did it, and I am not going to be the last. It’s a grown-a** woman making a life choice, which people who I don’t even know tried to have a say in.”

The actor admitted that all of the conversations “felt stupid” at the time, and she just wanted to be happy and enjoy her special day. “It all felt very stupid at that time, but we had been waiting for this for a long time, and finally it was happening. We were ecstatic to be able to spend our lives with each other, and we just blocked all the noise,” said Sonakshi.

She admitted that ignoring everyone’s comments was easier said than done, especially at a time when she wanted everything to be perfect. Sinha said, “It is very difficult to do that, especially at that point of time when you want nothing but positivity coming your way. I had to turn off my social media comments because I didn’t want to read a single negative thing on my special day about me, my partner or my family.”

Sonakshi and Zaheer started dating 2017 and got married in June 2024.

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