Shweta Tiwari reveals why she took nine years to end abusive marriage with Raja Chaudhary

Shweta Tiwari

Actress Shweta Tiwari is one of the most popular faces on television. Her performance as Prerna in the hit Hindi show 'Kasauti Zindagi Kay' is one of the most memorable roles on Indian prime-time television. Apart from her skills as an actress, Shweta Tiwari has also been in the news for her turbulent marriages. She first got married to Raja Chaudhary in 1998. In a recent interview with Galatta India, Shweta revealed what prevented her from filing for a divorce for years despite being in an abusive marriage.

Shweta had filed for a divorce in 2007 on the grounds of domestic violence and due to Raja's alcoholism. The actor claimed that Raja used to beat her up every day as well as turn up on the sets of her shows and misbehave with her.

Talking about what took her nine years to file for divorce, Shweta said, "In my entire family, nobody had ever done a love marriage, I had. There was also caste problems that existed in our family, yet I had an inter-caste marriage. People had already started to taunt my mother and judging my marriage. On top of that, if I filed for a divorce, it would have been a whole different thing. At that point in time, it wasn't that I was not financially independent, but it was more of an emotional thing. I was worried for my daughter not having a father while growing up. It was later that I realised that you can have a happy family only when you are mentally happy. It's not a good upbringing for your child to be in a dysfunctional family. If two people can't co-exist, it is better to part ways."

Shweta and Raja share a daughter named Palak Tiwari who is now an actress. She made her debut with Salman Khan's film 'Kisi ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan'. "I was worried for my daughter not having a father while growing up. It was later that I realised that you can have a happy family only when you are mentally happy. It's not a good upbringing for your child to be in a dysfunctional family. If two people can't co-exist, it is better to part ways," she added.

Shweta also revealed that she has been cheated on multiple times. "When you get cheated for the first time, it hits you. You cry, you feel, ‘God, why me?' You try to fix it, you try to do everything possible to undo it. The second time when it happens, you will realise, this will never stop hurting, this is how it is going to be. When the third time you get cheated on, it stops hurting you. It stops having an impact on you. Now, when someone cheats on me, when someone hurts me, I don't complain about it to them. I simply get detached. It's in their personality to hurt me and now it's in my personality to not get hurt."

She added, "I don't give them that power anymore. And suddenly they realise, ‘Oh she has left.' So far, I have witnessed whosever lives I have left and walked away, are regretting."