Saif opens up about his split with Amrita, mother Sharmila says it was 'not harmonious'

MUMBAI: The latest episode of 'Koffee with Karan 8' saw veteran actor Sharmila Tagore and her son Saif Ali Khan gracing the famous couch.

From Saif's childhood stories to Sharmila's evergreen films, the mother-son duo talked about several things while conversing with the host Karan Johar. They also addressed Saif's first marriage with actor Amrita Singh.

Saif and Amrita got married in October 1991. However, they parted ways in 2004. The two share daughter Sara and son Ibrahim.

Saif was 21 and Amrita was 33 when they tied the knot.

On being asked why Saif decided to get married at such a young age, Saif replied, "It was kind of like running away from home in a sense. I don't remember so many things going on and I found a kind of security and an idea that it feels great. I thought I could make a home out of that."

Sharmila Tagore added that both Saif and Amrita Singh were very similar in a lot of ways. "Both of them were very similar. Both of them were very funny. Whenever they would talk, it would be a lot of laughter, mimicking other people, tearing somebody to bits in a funny way. He is good at mimicry and she is a great storyteller. They looked really happy together," she added.

However, their marriage only lasted for 13 years.

Recalling his split from Amrita, Saif revealed that the first one to know about his decision to separate from the 'Aina' star was his mother Sharmila Tagore.

"With the separation, I just like to say, that the first person I spoke to before the separation was my mother. She took a deep breath, there was a pause on the phone, and said, 'I am with you if that's what you want' and that helped a lot," he said.

Sharmila then addressed the 'not so harmonious time' that followed after the split.

"When you are together for such a long time and you have such lovely children, then no break up is easy. Then it is not harmonious... I know it is difficult to have harmony at that stage, everybody is hurt... so that stage was not nice but I tried. But that's water under the bridge, she needed time to cool down."

Sharmila added that it was not a happy time for the family as they lost not just Amrita but also her and Saif's kids.

"It's not just staying away, there are so many other things that are involved. It wasn't a happy time for us because Ibrahim was just three and we were very fond of the children. Especially, Tiger was really fond of Ibrahim and he would say, 'That's a good lad.' He didn't get that time with him. So we felt doubly deprived to lose Amrita and lose the two kids. So it's just not him but we also had to adjust to all that," she added.

'Koffee with Karan 8' streams on Disney+Hotstar.