Actor Imran Khan recently got candid about the realities of single parenting while co-parenting his daughter Imara with his ex-wife Avantika Malik. The actor revealed that some mothers of Imara’s friends feel hesitant about sending their children over for playdates because there is no woman in his household.
Imran Khan on being a single father
Recently, Imran appeared on Parineeti Chopra’s show Mom Talks, where he spoke about the struggles and responsibilities of being a single parent. Imran is currently co-parenting his daughter with ex-wife Avantika and had earlier shared that she spends three to four days a week with him.
During the chat show, Imran shared that whenever his daughter stays with him, organising playdates with her friends and coordinating with their parents can become challenging.
Imran said, “I would try to make plans. And Imara would ask me, ‘Can you ask this friend if they can come over to play?’ So I would find the number and message one mom: ‘Can so-and-so come over to play?’ And they would say, ‘Sorry, not today.’ Next week again: ‘Hi, can we do it?’, they are like, ‘No, not today’. So I started to notice that some moms were maybe not so comfortable sending their child, particularly if it’s a girl, to a house where a single man is living. I’m a man and I’m the father, but since I’m divorced now, there is no woman at home.”
The actor admitted that he understood their perspective as well, mentioning, “So, look, we also live in a world where there are enough problematic men. You can kind of understand where this thinking comes from. It was heartbreaking because week after week I had to tell my daughter, ‘Sorry, your friend can’t come’.”
Imran feels that mothers often come together to support fellow single mothers, but “a single father doesn’t have that, which is also part of the unfortunate nature of male relationships”. He mentioned that there is a restrictive version of manhood that is taught to all men, which is “men are strong, men are not like that. So within that, some of these more vulnerable parts of yourself maybe don’t get addressed, where a woman will have two or three girlfriends who respond emotionally and support you there”.
About Imran’s personal life
Imran and Avantika began dating when they were teenagers. The couple was engaged on January 16 2010, in Karjat. They were married a year later in a private civil ceremony at Aamir Khan‘s home in Pali Hill. They welcomed their daughter Imara in 2013. In 2019, it was reported that the couple was living separately. Their divorce was reportedly finalised the same year.
At the moment, Imran is dating Lekha Washington. Imran and Lekha were apparently part of the same social circle and started dating in 2020. Reportedly, Imran and Lekha rented a house together in Mumbai. As per Money Control, Imran and Lekha have leased the sea-facing apartment in the Bandra area of the city from director Karan Johar. The rent of the apartment is ₹9 lakh per month. Imran previously stayed in his bungalow at Bandra’s Pali Hill.
