Here is the list of Bollywood actresses who became second-wives after marrying already married men or divorcees –
- Vidya Balan – She is not exactly the second wife but a third one, because her husband Siddharth Roy Kapoor divorced twice before marrying her on December 2012. The romantic relationship that bloomed between them culminated into a fairy-tale wedding.
- Kareena Kapoor – She had split from Shahid Kapoor, while Saif Ali Khan was dating Italian model Rosa Catalano after divorcing Amrita Singh, after a marriage that lasted for 13 years. Saif and Kareena fell in love with each other, while working on ‘Tashan’ in 2007. After dating for 5 years, the couple married in 2012. The Saifeena relationship is known to be one of the rock-solid ones in Bollywood and Kareena is known to fit perfectly with Saif and Amrita’s children, doting on her.
- Karisma Kapoor – While, everyone believed that Karishma Kapoor was going to marry Abhishek Bachchan, after a grand engagement, the announcement of marriage went kaput. Karishma Kapoor ended up marrying the divorced businessman Sanjay Kapoor, on September 29, 2003. The couple divorced again, after there were reports of Sanjay dating Priya Sachdev (wife of Vikram Chatwal)
- Kalki Koechlin – Kalki Koechlin the muse of director Anurag Kashyap debuted in Dev-D. The two had a romantic relationship, after which she ended up marrying him, on April 30, 2011. Anurag split from his editor wife Aarti Bajaj (they have a daughter Aaliya) after he began turning alcoholic, because of his movie ‘Paanch’ being struck in cans. He was broke and in depression, till he decided to start afresh with Black Friday and go commercial with Dev-D.
- Kiran Rao – Aamir Khan divorced his first wife Reena Dutta of 15 years, after he began falling in love with Kiran Rao, who was his assistant during the filming of Lagaan. Kiran and Aamir have a child called Azad Rao Khan who was born in 2011.
- Lara Dutta – Lara Dutta married tennis star Mahesh Bhupati who was a divorcee after his marriage to model Shvetha Jaishankar. Lara was in a live-in relationship for almost ten years with fellow model Kelly Dorjee before they separated.
- Madhubala – The effervescent Madhubala fell in love with Madhubala after Dilip Kumar broke up with her. Kishore Kumar divorced his first wife Ruma Guha Thakurta to wed Madhubala.
- Hema Malini – The Dream Girl was never in shortage of single and married male superstars of her time, desperately wooing her. But Hema lost her heart to the married man Dharmendra. The latter’s wife Prakash Kaur, was not willing to consent to divorce, so he converted to Islam and became ‘Dilawar’ while Hema converted to became Hamida.
- Raveena Tandon – Nursing her broken-heart after a breakup with Akshay Kumar, she decided to go for marriage and found her partner in the divorcee, Anil Thadani, whom she wed in 2004,
- Shilpa Shetty – Post her breakup with Akshay Kumar, Shilpa Shetty concentrated on her career. She won international fame big-time by being the winner of Celebrity Big Brother in 2007. One of her fans turned out be British-Indian businessman Raj Kundra. He was besotted by her and Shilpa found herself getting attracted to him. Raj divorced his wife Kavita to marry Shilpa on November 22, 2009.
- Sarika – Sarika fell in love with Kamal Hassan and were living-in together, even though he was married to Vani Ganapathy. Sarika was pregnant with Shruti Hassan in 1986. Kamal divorced Vani to marry Sarika in 1988.
- Zeenat Aman – The sultry actress fell in love with Sanjay Khan on the sets of Abdullah. He was already married to Zarine Katrak (the 60s model) with whom they had three children, Farah Ali Khan (married to DJ Aqeel), Suzanne Khan (divorced from Hrithik Roshan) and actor Zayed Khan. Zeenat had a long-standing relationship with Sanjay, which was marred by physical abuse, as he was known to inflict injuries on her. After splitting with him, Zeenat married Mazhar Khan who would also beat her up. Incidentially, Mazhar was also a married man, husband to Rubaina Mumtaz, niece of Dilip Kumar. The much married Dev Anand in his autobiography writes about having a huge crush on his muse Zeenat, who seemed to be taken up by Raj Kapoor.
- Vyjayanthimala – She had almost married a much-married Raj Kapoor during the filming of Sangam. The relationship was strained after Raj Kapoor’s wife Krishna disgusted with the affair,checked into Natraj Hotel in Mumbai and stayed there for four and a half months, with their children. Vyjayanthimala, then married Dr. Chamanlal Bali, who split up with his wife, in 1968.
- Sridevi – A much married Boney Kapoor relentlessly pursued Sridevi and finally won her heart, post her mother’s death. The couple married in 1996. A distraught Mona Kapoor (who died in 2012) continued to stay in Boney Kapoor’s home for 10 years after divorce, and brought the children Anshula and Arjun Kapoor up. Sridevi, incidentally had secretly married a much-married Mithun Chakraborthy in the 1980s. Mithun was not able to divorce Yogeeta Bali, who began to ruin her own health, after which Mithun was forced to return to his wife.
- Shabana Azmi – She married Javed Akhtar, popular Bollywood lyricist, poet and script-writer on December 9, 1984. Javed already a first wife in the form of Bollywood script-writer Honey Irani who bore him two children – Zoya and Farhan Akhtar.
Helen Richardson- Helen lived in with P.N.Arora for 16 years, from 1957 to 1973, after which she broke up with him. In 1981, Helen married script-writer Salim Khan, and became his second wife. They adopted a girl called Arpita. Salim Khan had married Sushila Charak, a Maharashtrian lady, in 1964; and they have four children – Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Sohail Khan and Alvira Khan