Javed Akhtar says his first marriage failed due to alcoholism: ‘I would become a very nasty man’

Veteran lyricistJaved Akhtar has talkedabout his struggle with alcoholism and how it was the major reason behind his failed first marriage with Honey Irani.

Akhtar is one of the celebrities who fearlessly put his views forward. During his recent interview with Mojo Story, Akhtar recalled drinking heavily which eventually led to the end of his 11-year-long marriage.

“I started drinking at the age of 20-21 and left when I was 42 years old. I could afford a bottle and used to drink almost a bottle every night. It’s very common for Urdu poets to become big drunkards because they believe that if they are poets and artistes, they should be carefree and you should drink. I think I had those wrong values,” he said.

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Recalling how he used to become nasty and used foul words under intoxication. He added, “On the other side, all the tehzeeb [good manners] that I learned in Lucknow didn’t allow me to use foul language, so all the bitterness was compressed inside me. But when I used to drink all those barriers will break and I would become a very nasty man and would use foul language. I used to become another person. It was unhealthy, irrational and causing problem to many people. It impacted my marriage with Honey. If I was a sober and responsible person, the story would have been different.”

Javed married songwriter Honey in 1972. They are parents to two children - filmmaker Farhan Akhtar and filmmaker Zoya Akhtar. After a decade of marriage, the former couplegot divorced in 1984, after which Javed married Shabana Azmi.

During the same interview, he shared that Shabana ‘somehow managed’ his alcoholism for the first ’10 years of their marriage’. Akhtar eventually stopped drinking after he realised that he might ‘die soon’ due to excessivedrinking, and since then he hasn't taken “a sip of champagne.”