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Azhar-Sangeeta split?
Updated On: 23 July, 2010 08:32 AM IST | | Promita Mukherjee
Their 14-year marriage is reportedly over, following the former India skipper's close relationship with badminton champ half his age
Their 14-year marriage is reportedly over, following the former India skipper's close relationship with badminton champ half his age
Mohammad Azharuddin and Sangeeta Bijlani's 14-year-old marriage is reportedly over. If the buzz in Hyderabad (which has now reached Mumbai as well and is fast spreading to the rest of the country) is to be believed, then all is not well between the mian-biwi. According to a highly-placed source, Azhar will be filing for divorce within a week. And a badminton champ half his age is believed to be the reason for the split.
Mohammad Azharuddin and Sangeeta Bijlani
Jwala Gutta (26), World No 7 mixed doubles player, currently married to Arjuna Award-winner badminton champ Chetan Anand, is the one who has caught the fancy of the 47-year-old former India skipper and Congress MP from Moradabad.
He is said to be so besotted with her that he has gifted her a BMW, in which she rides all around Hyderabadu00a0-- something that first raised eyebrows, as mixed doubles badminton players are not a well-paid lot. 
Rough weather: Jwala Gutta with husband Chetan Anand
"Whenever he is in Hyderabad, he is seen in Pullela Gopichand's academy where Jwala practises and they both leave together. They head to some hotel but I am not sure if they stay together in the same room," said a highly-placed source from the Andhra Pradesh Badminton Association.
"Jwala and her husband are not staying together at the moment and are even practising separately," he added. Azhar was spotted at the Asian Badminton Championship in Delhi recently and the couple have even been watching matches together.
Gopichand refused to get embroiled in the controversy. "I don't want to comment anything on this," he said, cautiously.
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| One from the album: Azhar with his first wife Naureen and kids. file pic |
Badminton officials say Jwala was the reason why Azhar was interested in fighting the Badminton Association of India (BAI) elections, and not to "bring professionalism,
accountability and transparency in BAI's working" as he had said. Azhar, however, withdrew his nomination later. With inputs from Amit Singh
First shaadi and divorce
After an eight-year marriage, Azhar divorced his first wife Naureen after he started seeing Sangeeta. His messy divorce cost him two bungalows in Hyderabad's Banjara Hills, two BMWs apart from lakhs of rupees. He has two sons from his first wifeu00a0-- Asaduddin and Abbasuddin. Five years after the divorce, Naureen married a Canada-based real-estate businessman.
Snippets from the dressing room
A NEWSPAPER photographer managed to capture Mohammed Azharuddin and Sangeeta Bijlani at the Cricket Club of India when the Indian team led by Azharuddin trained at the Brabourne Stadium in 1995. Azhar was livid when he saw the photograph in the newspaper the following day. However, a little birdie tells us that he took a liking for the photograph and requested the cameraman to part with a copy.
DURING the Board President's XI vs New Zealand, the batting stylist annoyed agency reporters, who had to file their copies from the press centre of Rajkot's Municipal Stadium in 1995, by using the telephone line to talk to his new-found love. When a senior journalist protested, Azharuddin couldn't understand what all the fuss was
| Azhar-Sangeeta |
| Azhar met Sangeeta at a photo shoot where he modelled for an advertisement along with the actress, soon after which he started seeing her in 1994.u00a0 Azhar was a married man, the shy and reserved sort and Sangeeta was dating Salman Khan then. After a romance that drew a lot of criticism, the two tied the knot in 1996. Read Next Story Trending StoriesLatest Photos |
